Agenda and minutes

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

There were no apologies for absence.

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.

Councillor Cutler declared that the Queen’s Head was in her ward.

The order of business would be as per the agenda.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on the 24 October 3018 be confirmed as a correct record and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The licensing officer advised that a noise management plan had been submitted and following the modification of an existing condition which had been agreed by the applicant, the noise team had withdrawn their representation.

In a response to concern from a member that the licence was for 270 people including staff and the application stated 270 people excluding staff, the applicant’s legal advisor stated that the applicant was willing for the 270 figure to include staff.

The applicant’s legal advisor confirmed that the applicant had agreed the condition proposed by the noise team. He stated that this was an unusual case. The applicant was not seeking to change capacity, hours, licensable activity; just to bring the front room into use.

The applicant’s legal advisor referred to the objection from the resident, who was not in attendance at the hearing, and stated they were under the misapprehension that the applicant wanted to increase capacity. The applicant was simply seeking to reconfigure the space.

In response to questions from members, the applicant’s legal advisor explained the location of the front room and advised it looked over Essex Road and assured the sub-committee that the 270 capacity figure would not be exceeded as this was the legal limit. The variation would give the applicant more flexibility in terms of the use of the space within the premises.

RESOLVED

1)     That the application for a premises licence variation in respect of the Old Queens Head be granted to :

-       add an additional room on the second floor of the premises but not increase the overall capacity.

Conditions detailed in Annex 2 and Annex 3 on pages 36, 37 and 38 of the agenda shall be applied to the licence with Condition 5 in Annex 3 amended to read

“The licensee shall appoint a noise consultant registered with the Institute of Acoustics or Association of Noise Consultants to prepare a scheme of sound insulation and noise control measures, which may include the installation of a noise limiting device, to prevent persons in the neighbourhood from being unreasonably disturbed by noise from patrons and music from the second floor front and rear room. The scheme shall be submitted for approval by the Council, and the approved scheme fully implemented to the satisfaction of the Council and the licensee notified in writing accordingly, prior to second floor of the premises being used for regulated entertainment”.

The following additional condition shall be applied to the licence:

Maximum levels of sound for both rooms on the second floor should be expressed on the premises licence.

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

fell within the Upper Street/Angel cumulative impact area.  Licensing policy 3 created

a rebuttable presumption that applications for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The licensing officer advised that additional correspondence had been circulated to the committee, licensee and residents who had made representation. This would be interleaved with a copy of the agenda. She stated that she had checked whether any noise or smell complaints had been made to the council regarding the premises and none had been made.

The resident advised that he had not made any complaints but he sometimes had to close his windows. If the garden was used in the evening as well as the day, this would mean the noise and smells would go on for longer and this would be more of a problem. He raised concerns that this would result in the peace being disturbed all day and all evening long and did not consider it appropriate to have a previous residential garden turned into a café garden. He did not object to the café having a licence but did not want the garden of the café to be used at night.

In response to a question from a member, the applicant advised that the garden was approximately 12m². The garden’s usage was weather dependent as there was no cover and there would be a maximum of 10 people using the garden at any one time.

In response to questions from members, the resident stated that he did not object to the licence for inside the premises being granted until the time specified but considered that licensing the garden until this time would harm amenity in the evening.

The applicants stated that they were sorry to hear that the café had caused problems for the resident. They advised the committee that they had run the café for 12 years. The café was not the only commercial premises in a residential area and there were other businesses nearby. Their premises had always been commercial.

The applicants advised the sub-committee that they were also residents and lived above the café with their young children. They did not want to impact upon their children or neighbours. The premises was a café that also sold specialist foods including organic, low intervention, biodynamic wine, beer from microbreweries, preserves and cured meats. Wine was currently sold by the bottle but if granted, the licence would mean it could be sold by the glass to customers wanting to have a glass with food. The shop was 35m² and the kitchen was very small. There was no room for expansion.

In response to a questions about the food the café served, the applicants replied that there was a breakfast trade in the morning and mainly croissants and pastries were served. At lunchtime sandwiches and cheeseboards were served. The food served at lunchtime would be served in the evening. Food would not be cooked in the evening.

The licensees stated that they had not known there were any issues with smells but would be willing to look at extraction.

In response to a question about the capacity of the indoor area of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Sub-Committee noted that this application had been withdrawn from the agenda as it had been agreed with all parties.