Agenda and minutes

Received from Councillor Alice Clarke-Perry.

None.

None.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 4 July 2018 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

In his introduction and welcome to the meeting, the Chair informed all present that Committee members had received a number of written submissions, both from the applicant and objectors, since the agenda had been published, all of which had been read by Committee members.

The Licensing Officer reported that the application for the renewal of a Special Treatment Licence for this premises had received objections from local residents. The key issue appeared to be whether the premises was suitable for operation as a nail treatment premises. An extra recommendation had been proposed in the officer’s report that the Environmental Health Officer had to be satisfied with the use of the premises before the special treatments could continue. Further tests had been carried out by Environmental Health since the agenda had been produced and a Fire Officer’s report had been produced, both of which had been circulated. An officer from the Council’s Planning Team had been invited to attend this meeting to clarify planning issues associated with the premises.

The Planning Enforcement Officer reported that the lawful use of the ground floor of the premises was A1 retail use and that a nail bar constituted a change of use. Following a warning letter from the Council, the nail bar on the ground floor had ceased and the basement was now being used to provide nail treatments. The ground floor was used for retail purposes. A planning application would need to be submitted for the change of use to mixed use. 

Members noted the report of the Planning Enforcement Officer but confirmed that the Committee had no Planning powers, nor any power over the alcohol licence, nor powers over noise nuisance, which were all matters for other committees of the Council.

The Environmental Health Manager gave a timeline of her interaction with London Grace since complaints about odour and noise nuisance were first received in October 2017 from residents living above the London Grace premises. This included a number of visits to the premises by the Licensing Team and Out of Hours Response and Patrol Team.   Odour nuisance had been witnessed on many of these occasions. Environmental Health Officers had also carried out a smoke test at the premises, which confirmed that some smoke had travelled directly from the basement of London Grace into the hallway of the residential premises upstairs, via the ceiling space and gas meter cupboard.  Following the service of an abatement notice on London Grace in June 2018, she noted that London Grace had carried out some remedial works, including extra ventilation, with extractor fans running 24 hours a day. However, further remedial works in relation to fire separation works had been identified which were the responsibility of the freeholder, residential leaseholder and the commercial leaseholder.  As a result of the service of an Environmental Health notice, she noted that London Grace had installed a second extractor system in the basement of the premises, reinstated the ceiling in the basement area and temporarily sealed the gas meter cupboard  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.