A secret panel of councillors held a hearing behind closed doors today that could strip a Brighton pub of its licence and throw people out of their jobs.
Sussex Police asked a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel to hold a hearing in private – and the panel agreed.
And despite the laws governing open justice, the council also withheld 200 pages of evidence, some relating to a criminal case in which the defendant has already been convicted, having pleaded guilty.
The pub aren't happy, and well might they not be:
Barrister Sarah Clover, for Indigo Leisure, the owner of Molly Malone’s, said: “The default is for licensing hearings to be heard in public. I don’t see an unusual reason in this case for it not to be held in public.”
Me neither. The police refer to 'potential other elements of the case'. But these too are secret:
...details of the criminal case were made public at Brighton Magistrates’ Court last month when a Hove teenager, whose identity is protected by law, admitted carrying out a violent attack.
Sussex Police barrister Peter Savill said that other elements of the case were still active, although he did not make clear publicly exactly what they might be.
Should the police and council have these powers to close down businesses and affect jobs in this manner? I don't believe so. We know they won't use them wisely.
Couldn't outraged taxpayers have a meeting, behind closed doors, and without any outside publicity regarding the way it was conducted, discussing whether all of the councillors be de-selected at the next election? If that happened, I wonder how long it would take some taxpayer fed parasite declaring it unconstitutional.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
In a land where all animals are equal but some are more equal than others you wouldn't expect the pigs too take any interest in what the lesser animals might have to say would you?
ReplyDelete"If that happened, I wonder how long it would take some taxpayer fed parasite declaring it unconstitutional."
ReplyDeleteQuicker than a Raducanu volley, I suspect...
"...you wouldn't expect the pigs too take any interest in what the lesser animals might have to say would you?"
Sadly, no...