Agenda and minutes

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chairman confirmed that all parties understood the procedure to be followed for the hearing.

Report for Licensing Panel

Annex A – Current Club Premises Certificate

Annex B – Plan

Annex C – Application

Annex D – Representation

Annex E – Location of Premises

Annex F – Proposed Conditions

The Panel’s decision was that the application for the variation of a premises licence in respect ofSandhurst Social Club. Wellington Road, Sandhurst, Berkshire. GU47 9AWshall be granted.

The basis of the decision, the evidence considered and the panel’s reasons are set out below:

The Panel carefully considered all the information presented, both written and oral, from:

• the Licensing Team Leader who outlined the issues;
• the applicant’s written representation;
• the interested party, who submitted a written representation.

together with reference to the appropriate Licensing Objective: The Prevention of Public Nuisance, particularly noise nuisance, the Council’s own Licensing Policy and the Secretary of State’s guidance. It should be noted that only the Licensing Officer attended the hearing. The applicant and the objector did not attend. The written evidence of both the applicant and objector was considered carefully by the panel.

The Panel noted that none of the responsible authorities had objected.

The Panel noted that main concern of the representation by the objector was noise arising from people smoking outside the premises late at night and the continuation of this noise, should the application for variation be granted adding an additional 30 minutes to the time which people could smoke outside the premises.

The Panel noted that the applicant had met with the Licensing Team Leader and Environmental Health to agree conditions in relation to the variation of the premises licence and to remove any duplicated conditions now covered by other legislation. Since the introduction of the Licensing Act, conditions that were applicable at that time are often now redundant because of changes in legislation and regulations and it is common for licences on a variation to tidy up the conditions so they reflect the current law and operations at the premises.

The representative had made a number of complaints regarding noise at the premises; three to four complaints a year prior to 2011, and two in 2011. All complaints about the premises received by the Licensing Team had been made by this single objector and there had been no complaint lodged since 2011 some 3 years ago. However, when the representative had complained they had declined to keep and complete diary sheets suggested by the Licensing Team documenting his specific issues with the premises and the effects of these upon him.

There had been no complaints from other residents regarding noise from this premises since July 2007. A licensing officer had visited the premises during busier times, such as Friday evening and on the weekend, and had not observed unusually loud noise from the premises.

Ms Bartlett, the Club Secretary, had confirmed prior to the hearing that she was happy for a decision to be made by the panel on the papers and her written representation as she was unable to attend the hearing in person. Ms Bartlett had confirmed to the Licensing Team Leader that CCTV had been installed at the premises, which included a view of the smoking area and which the person behind the bar  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.