May Day Friday 1st May
I have a virtual Licencing Hearing following an application for a licence for a premise previously closed due to crime and disorder. The Police have objected, I require a condition that all music is played through a sound limiter. We are invited to start at 9.50am to allow people to connect, and I settle down in the front room with my laptop and meetings papers, where I won’t be disturbed by dogs or wife. It is 10.30 before everyone, 12 of us altogether, is successfully connected from various homes, some using Teams video link, others, like me, connecting via Teams using my phone. The Councillor chairing the Hearing starts by quoting the section of the Coronavirus Act 2020 emergency legislation that permits the hearing, which would normally must be public, to be a virtual hearing. The Hearing is formal, all matters to go through the Chair, each of stating our name and role before speaking, instead of name labels in front of us in a Committee Room. Participants mute microphones when not speaking, and forget to unmute when asking a question. I have my phone on handsfree/speaker, and occasionally hear an automated announcement that “X has now left the meeting”, and there is a pause while X re-connects. The Chair forgets to ask me if I have questions for the applicant after he reads his statement. I do, but cannot catch the Chair’s eye by phone – I have to successfully interrupt. Despite the hiccups, the Hearing goes reasonably smoothly, although takes two hours, instead of the expected hour.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
