Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary 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 Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting and must not participate in discussion of the matter or vote on the matter unless granted a dispensation by the Monitoring officer or by the Governance and Audit Committee.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The panel noted the procedure for hearings at Licensing Panels.  

Annex A – Application Form

Annex B – Proposed Plan

Annex C – current licence

Annex D – current plan

Annex E – map

Annex F – objection

Annex G – objection

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

• the Licensing Officer who outlined the issues;
• the Applicant,
• the Interested Parties;

together with reference to the appropriate Licensing objectives, the Council’s own Licensing Policy and the Secretary of State’s guidance. At the conclusion of the proceedings all participants present confirmed that they had been given the opportunity to say all they wished to say.

The Panel noted that there had been no representations made by the Police, or any of the other Responsible Authorities. The Panel bore in mind the promotion of the four licensing objectives, the relevant objectives in this case being potential for noise nuisance, protection of children from harm and crime and disorder. The focus of the hearing and the issue which separated the parties was around the potential and actual noise nuisance at both ends of the day as the application is to open at 7.30am for breakfast trade and open later on specific days particularly New Years Eve and Public and Bank Holidays

The Panel decided that granting the licence would not have an adverse impact on the promotion of the four licensing objectives, and agreed to grant the Licence with an additional condition to require the Designated Premises Supervisor to ensure monitoring of outside areas including the smoking areas is undertaken at least every 30 minutes from 22:00 until at least an hour following the premises’ closing time, with a written log kept. This is to ensure that noise outside the premises is kept to a minimum after sociable hours. This condition substitutes that of existing condition 25.

The Panel recognised the improvements proposed to the premises and the significant investment, and agreed that the new proposals for a food focussed pub were to be welcomed. The Panel hoped that through a gastropub offer, good management and changes to the staffing patterns, disturbances could be prevented or at least kept to a minimum. It was hoped that the behaviour of patrons would improve following the renovation and focus on dining in a seated service layout. They also noted that the new establishment would attract a more upmarket clientele, by provision of more expensive craft beers rather than common tap beers.

The Panel were informed that regulated entertainment may include acoustic live performances, but would be reasonable within a dining establishment and would not include regular live sport, karaoke or similar.

The Panel raised concerns about migration from other pubs which closed earlier than this premises, and were reminded that speculation without evidence could not be the basis of a refusal. The presumption is to grant the license and deal with potential rather than actual breaches via a review.

The Panel heard from objectors who cited concerns over noise disturbance, particularly around the extended hours on bank holidays and New Years Eve. The Panel formed the clear view on the balance of probabilities that the evidence of actual noise in the past was cogent and compelling in respect of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.