Agenda and draft 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 – Premises Licence

Annex B – Application for Variation of Premises Licence & Plan

Annex C – Representation 1

Annex D – Representation 2

Annex E – Representation 3

Annex F – Representation 4

Annex G – Proposed Conditions

Annex H – Location Plan

The Panel’s decision was that the application for a variation of the premises licence in respect ofWaitrose-Shell, Bagshot Road, Bracknell, Berkshire. RG12 9SE shall be granted, subject to the amended proposals from the mediation and the amended conditions at Annex G.

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

• the Licensing Officer who outlined the issues;
• the applicant’s representatives Mr Jon Wallsgrove, Mr Ken Williams and Ms Janette Clark; for Waitrose
• the interested parties, (1) who submitted oral and written representations, and one other 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.

At the conclusion of the licensing panel hearing all participants present confirmed that they had been given the opportunity to say all they wished to say.

The Panel noted that none of the responsible authorities had made representations. The Panel were advised that Environmental Protection had considered the application for variation of the premises licence for Waitrose-Shell and found no history of complaints in relation to the site going back at least two years. It was clarified that complaints needed to be made via relevant channels to Bracknell Forest Council.

The Panel noted the concerns of the representatives which included the following:

Noise: late night facilities encouraging noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour whilst people are trying to sleep, such as shouting and arguing. Also, representations mentioned engine noise and motorbikes racing on the roads nearby.

Litter: an increase in the volume of litter in the nearby vicinity.

Sale of alcohol to drivers, in light of the government drink driving campaign, possibly leading to further drink driving offences and a detrimental effect on public safety. Alcohol could be purchased from supermarkets until a late hour and Waitrose-Shell was a convenience shop. Sale of alcohol until such a late hour was felt to further encourage drunken behaviour.

Route: Bagshot Road, Downshire Way, and Berkshire Way were used as link roads from the M3 and M4 motorways by heavy goods vehicles causing vibrations to homes nearby in a predominantly residential area and potentially causing an increase in traffic pollution.

Safety: the health and safety of residents in the area, particularly the subway for children. The interested party at the hearing commented that all these problems were related and asked for them to be addressed in a holistic manner.

The interested party at the hearing commented that she felt more residents should have been notified of the proposed variation to Waitrose-Shell and that people may not check the Borough Council’s website for details in relation to new or variations to premises licences in their area. However, the Panel were satisfied that notification of the proposed variation in relation to Waitrose-Shell was undertaken in keeping with the statutory requirements under the Licensing Act 2003 via public notice at the premises, an advertisement in a local newspaper, advertisement on the Bracknell Forest Council website, and written  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.