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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 4

Contact: Jackie Tunstall  020 7527 3068

Items
No. Item

1.

Introductions and procedure

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.

2.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Asima Shaikh and Joseph Croft.

3.

Declarations of substitute members

Minutes:

Councillor Valerie Bossman-Quarshie substituted for Councillor Joseph Croft and Councillor Phil Graham substituted for Councillor Asima Shaikh.

4.

Declarations of interest

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.

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

5.

Order of Business

Minutes:

The order of business would be as the agenda.

6.

Club Bonbon, First Floor, 1 Navigator Square, N19 3TD - Premises licence review pdf icon PDF 572 KB

Minutes:

The licensing officer reported that additional papers had been circulated to the members of the Sub-Committee.  The Sub-Committee confirmed that they had seen a video showing customers entering the venue and the victim leaving.

 

The legal representative for the applicant stated that conditions on a licence were attached to ensure that the licensing objectives were upheld. In this instance the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety and the protection of children from harm licensing objectives were not upheld.  When conditions were complied with risks were mitigated. There were no issues to the changes of the conditions as proposed by the licensee but they did not get to the heart of the problem. There had been three main failings. The premises had allowed an underage customer to enter the premises and be served alcohol, she was allowed to become intoxicated and was then assaulted whilst in a vulnerable state. Although this was a trigger incident for the review, there have been other incidents and the police had engaged with the premises for a long time. The police had met at the end of the 2021 with the licence holder, the designated premises supervisor and the fire brigade over management concerns. This led to the engagement of a new door team, a new designated premises supervisor and new solicitors being engaged. These changes are similar to those being proposed again today. Police had tried to ensure compliance but despite these changes there were still organisational failings and it was considered that only revocation would solve the issues.

Firstly, there were failings at every level from the top to the bottom.  This had been accepted by the nightclub. A letter from the Director and previous designated premises supervisor, had stated that his best was not good enough and procedures had not been followed. The current designated premises supervisor was removed and replaced, staff at the venue did not scan or check ID when serving alcohol. The culture of the organisation was not up to scratch. It was considered that it would be necessary for a new licence holder to submit a new application that could be properly scrutinised.  The police would be very wary of a transfer application.  The failures have been widespread and the correct thing would be to revoke the licence and ask for a new application and not accept the word of the Director that the new team would be better.

Secondly, the Sub-Committee could consider deterrence. This incident was a crime of the utmost seriousness and revocation would send a strong message to all other licence holders that all conditions should be complied with all of the time.  This was one incident that justified sending that message.

 

In response to questions, it had been noted that there had been three designated premises supervisors in the past three years.  It had been made clear to the Director that this was his last chance.  He had not been able to make the changes necessary.  He was always pleasant and agreeable  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Exclusion of Press and Public

Minutes:

RESOLVED

That the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item as the presence of members of the public and press would result in the disclosure of exempt information within the terms of the Local Government Act 1972 for the following reasons:-

 

Category 1 – Information relating to any individual.

Category 2 – Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual

Category 7 – Information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime.

 

8.

EXEMPT APPENDIX - Club Bonbon, First Floor, 1 Navigator Square, N19 3TD - Premises licence Review

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the appendices to the report be noted.