Agenda and draft minutes

To elect a Chair for the meeting

RESOLVED that Councillor Gaw be elected Chair for the meeting.

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.  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.

Panel members declared that they had no interest in the application before them.

The procedure for hearings at Licensing Panels was noted and understood by all parties.

The application was for a new Premises Licence to permit the following licensable activity:

(1)   Retail sale of alcohol (for consumption on the premises only) between the hours of 12:00 - 22:45 Monday to Sunday, with the terminal hour being 23:00.

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

• the Licensing Officer who outlined the issues
• the Applicant
• residents who had made representations

together with reference to the appropriate Licensing objectives and provisions under the Licencing Act 2003, the Home Office Guidance issued in respect of the same and having regard to the Council’s own Statement of Licensing Policy.

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 no representations had been received concerning the four licensing objectives from any of the Responsible Authorities, including the Licensing Authority, the Planning Authority, Trading Standards, Thames Valley Police, Environment Health, Public Health, and the Fire Authority. 

The Panel reached its decision with a view to promoting all four Licensing objectives under the Licensing Act 2003:

• the prevention of crime and disorder
• public safety
• the prevention of public nuisance
• the protection of children from harm

The Panel noted that during the application consultation process, a total of five representations had been received from members of the public. One had been mediated and withdrawn, prior to the hearing. The Panel noted that the one objector who attended the panel hearing was ultimately satisfied with the Applicant’s amended proposal with attached conditions.

It was noted that the non-withdrawn written representations received from members of the public in this matter related specifically to the prevention of public nuisance licensing objective. In particular, concerns as to potential noise nuisance from live or recorded music to be played at the premises, also from the Applicant’s disposal of glassware/bottle waste late at night or early morning, as well as potential noise disturbance from deliveries to the premises. Concern was also raised as to possible parking issues that might arise for residents in the vicinity due to patrons/visitors parking vehicles when attending the premises.         

The Panel determined that granting the licence would not have an adverse impact on the promotion of the four licensing objectives. The Panel agreed to grant the licence, with conditions attached. The conditions attached to the licence are the mandatory licence conditions, the further conditions as offered and set out within the Applicant’s Operating Schedule, the further conditions as offered by the Applicant during the mediation process ahead of the hearing and additionally further conditions as offered orally by the Applicant during the Panel hearing itself.

Reasons

The Panel noted that the application had been significantly amended from the original application that had been set out in the published agenda paperwork, albeit it was not to the detriment of those making representations. The proposed hours of licensable activity had been reduced considerably from those originally applied for.  

Originally, the application had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.