Agenda and minutes

Councillor Angelo Weekes welcomed everyone to the meeting and officers and members introduced themselves.  The procedure for the conduct of the meeting was outlined.

None.

There were no declarations of substitute members.

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b) Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f) Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The order of business would be as the agenda. The Sub-Committee noted that Item B2 - Baudelaire had been withdrawn from the agenda.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meetings held on 31 October and 12 December 2023 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The licensing officer reported that this application was a variation to extend into an unlicensed area. The police licensing team had submitted an objection, but this had been withdrawn following an additional condition agreed with the applicant. Three residents had objected but none were present at the meeting.

The applicant stated that this was a variation application for the same licensing activities and times for three further areas.

In response to questions, it was noted that this was a charity run centre aiming to enhance the community.  The application was to extend licensable activities to other areas which included the Bunhill Room, which would be used as a pop-up cookery school and for meetings and conferences. The car park area would be used for summer fetes. The well-being hub was also to be added to ensure that all areas in the centre were covered and the same rules applied for each. The Bunhill Room was situated next to the reception area. They had not had any noise complaints and had been running events for many years. They operated until 10pm at the latest and hired the venue out for evening bookings on very rare occasions. They did not have the staff capacity to allow for bookings of 100 people where alcohol was served. They were mirroring very small parts of the current licence with this variation.

RESOLVED

1)      That the application for a new premises licence, in respect of St Lukes Community Centre, St Lukes Centre, 90 Central Street, EC1V 8AJ, be granted to allow all licensable activities and hours to be extended to the Ground Floor – Wellbeing Hub, Bunhill Room and the external car park area.

2)      That conditions of the current licence shall be applied to the licence with the following additional condition.

·       The use of the external licenced area shall be limited to 9 dates per calendar year and between the hours of 9am and 8pm only. The Police and Local Authority Licensing Teams shall be notified of any such events not less than 7 days prior to the event.

REASONS FOR DECISION

The Sub-Committee listened to all the evidence and submissions and read all the material. The Sub-Committee reached the decision having given consideration to the Licensing Act 2003, as amended, and its regulations, the national guidance and the Council’s Licensing Policy.

The Sub-Committee took into consideration Licensing Policies 2 & 3.  The premises fall within the Bunhill Cumulative Impact Area.  Licensing policy 3 creates a rebuttable presumption that applications for the grant or variation of premises licences which are likely to add to the existing cumulative impact will normally be refused following the receipt of representations, unless the applicant can demonstrate in the operating schedule that there will be no negative cumulative impact on one or more of the licensing objectives.

Three local resident objections had been received and their content was noted by the Sub-Committee. There had been no representations made by any Responsible Authorities. A police objection was withdrawn after a condition was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

The Sub-Committee noted that this item had been withdrawn from the agenda.

The licensing officer reported that the variation application sought to remove or amend a number of conditions from the licence. A representation had been made by the police and this was still outstanding.

The police reported that the application was seeking to remove a number of safeguarding conditions. He stated that these conditions would normally be proposed for a new licence. They did not feel it was appropriate to agree to the removal of these conditions and this matter should be heard by a Sub-Committee. The reduction in hours would not negate the need for these safeguarding conditions. The police had not had any contact from the applicant prior to the submission of the application.  He considered that the Licensing Authority intended to make a representation but did not do so for administrative reasons.

The applicant stated that this was an application to amend conditions and to vary the hours.  The only objection had been from the Police team. The Licensing Authority had made no representation.  There were premises both sides of this property which did not have such strict conditions and the conditions placed on the current licence was putting an unfair restriction on the business. Customers did not understand why single cans could not be sold and this caused problems. The premises had been trading for the past two years and there had been no problems. They proposed a condition that a list of beers sold over 6% abv could be agreed with the police. Retail had moved on over the past few years and there were many craft beers of over 6% which were popular amongst the community, particularly the young market. The Licensing Policy stated that Islington wanted an area that was vibrant. The price point for craft beers was too high for street drinkers. Customers currently had to buy more than one drink and would drink more alcohol than they wanted. Customers wanted to just buy just one can, but the current condition would make them spend more. Regarding miniatures, he would want to sell smaller bottles but the current condition meant that they would need to sell larger cans/bottles which also encouraged customers to drink more. All spirits were kept behind the counter. They proposed to amend the start hour from 7am to 8am.  All cans were price marked and there had been no problems. The applicant was just asking for a fair chance to run the business.

In response to questions, the applicant stated that he had a lot of customers asking for craft beers, which were sold at a higher strength, but were not interested in ciders and special brews. Customers were generally from the local area and were in their 20s and 30s. There was a price point of £3.50 - £4 per can. There were off licences nearby who could sell all alcohol. They wished to sell local craft beers from Tottenham, and beers such as Beavertown and BrewDog. Where customers wanted single cans of drink they could just go  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.