Agenda and minutes

Councillor Gary Poole 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.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The licensing officer reported that the public health team had withdrawn their representation.  The premises was in the Bunhill cumulative impact area.

The licensing authority reported that the premises were located in the Bunhill cumulative area. Concern was expressed that there were a large number of premises in the area selling alcohol which had a large impact on local residents in terms of nuisance.  The Sub-Committee should consider whether to deviate from the policy in this instance.

In response to questions, the licensing authority stated that the applicant had addressed issues through the addition of conditions. There was still the issue regarding opening hours as it stated in licensing policy 6 that premises in close proximity to schools should commence the sale of alcohol at 10am. The Sub-Committee noted that Shell UK, which was in close proximity to this premises, had recently been granted a licence from 8am.

The applicant stated that the issue to determine were the appropriate hours.  He considered that the exception to the policy had been met.  Prior to the application he had asked the licensing team for the appropriate start time and had been informed that 8am would be sufficient.  The police were concerned with crime and disorder and proposed conditions 12 and 13 had been agreed with them.  He had noted that with the Shell UK application, the licensing authority had withdrawn their objection and he asked that there be a consistent application of the licensing policy.  This was to be a new store, with a display area of 15% for alcohol which was ancillary to the convenience offering.  There would be no external advertising of the alcohol and no encouragement offer.  The pricing level would not attract vulnerable people and the store would provide local employment.  There would be CCTV and there would be a number of people on the shop floor.  There were Challenge 25 procedures in place. He asked that the application be granted as proposed conditions would meet all concerns.

The Chair of the Sub-Committee stated that Shell UK was a different type of business as the business primarily sold petrol and alcohol was a smaller part of the offer.  In response the applicant stated that their gross sales of alcohol was 10% across the estate.  Very little alcohol would be sold between the hours of 8am to 10am however, they wished to offer customers a flexibility of choice as some customers would buy alcohol with food on the way to work. It would be rare for customers to buy alcohol only. He also stated that vulnerable people did not usually buy at Marks and Spencer as there were other, cheaper premises nearby.  This was not an experience they’d had in their other shops in cumulative impact areas. They were applying for these hours in order to give a choice to their customers so that if they wanted to purchase alcohol with their evening meal they would not need to make a second trip or to buy it elsewhere. They  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.