Issue - meetings

Members are requested to determine an application to vary a premises licence where the authority has received relevant representation.

The Sub-Committee received a report to determine an application to vary a premises licence where the authority had received relevant representation.

The Principal Licensing Officer introduced the report. Within his introduction he stated the following:

a)            He stated that the hours requested within the original application were for 24/7 sales, with sales from 11pm onwards to be made via a hatch. He stated the requested hours had, however, been amended since the initial application, as seen within the skeleton argument circulated prior to the meeting.

The Sub-Committee invited other parties to ask questions of the Principal Licensing Officer. No parties had any questions to ask of the Principal Licensing Officer at this time. The Sub-Committee had no questions to ask of the Principal Licensing Officer at this time.

The Sub-Committee invited the Applicant to make an opening submission. The Licensing Consultant (Applicant’s representative) provided an opening submission on behalf of the Applicant:

a)            He stated that the hours requested within the original application were for 24/7 sales, with sales from 11pm onwards to be made via a hatch. He stated the requested hours had, however, been amended since the initial application, as seen within the skeleton argument circulated prior to the meeting.

b)            He stated that his client had owned the business in question for over three years, and that during that time he had experienced no issues requiring the police to be called.

c)            He stated that his client had recently taken on a new franchise agreement which would include upgrades and refurbishments to the store. He stated that, along with the refurbishments, his client also intended to increase trading hours as set out in the skeleton argument.

d)            He stated that his client was taking the opportunity as part of the application under consideration to request the modification of the conditions attached to the licence by way of the removal of all current conditions in favour of new ones as proposed in the skeleton argument, which he posited were commensurate with modern operating standards. He stated that he understood, through communication from the Licensing Officer, that the proposed conditions were considered acceptable by the Police and Environmental Health.

e)            He stated that the store was located on a busy junction along an arterial road with traffic 24/7 and that the company director lived in close proximity to the store.

f)             He stated that Licensing Officers had confirmed that the application had been properly advertised in line with regulations, and that no representations against the application had been submitted by members of the public.

g)            He stated that he had researched the crime statistics of the Ewell area on the ‘Police UK’ website, which stated that the area as a whole averaged 50 offences per month, with the specific area of the shop averaging less than 1 per month. He stated that of those <1 offences per month, very few were public order offences. He suggested that later opening hours, serving convenience items as well as alcohol, would not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6