Agenda and minutes

Councillor Nick Wayne 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 Item B2 followed by Item B1.  Item B3 had been deferred to a future meeting and Item B4 had been agreed under delegated powers following the withdrawal of representations.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 31 May 2022 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The licensing officer reported that the licensing team and police carried out a joint visit the previous Friday. No alcohol was in the premises and no particular concerns were raised. The Sub-Committee noted that this was a fresh application and there were no representations from the responsible authorities.

The resident raised concerns regarding the cumulative impact in the area. He stated that the area was well supplied with premises including late night premises in the area.  He was concerned about noise at the front of the premises and people blocking the narrow pavement outside. He was also concerned about noise at the rear of the premises as noise could spill out in the courtyard area and resonate around the block. He was concerned about the suitability of the applicant as he had previously stored alcohol although he accepted he had not seen any since that time. The premises had a snooker table and he considered it felt more like a club. He was concerned that the introduction of alcohol would increase the noise nuisance and his other neighbours shared his concerns.

In response to questions the resident had not noticed an increase in noise from the café but was concerned that this would change if alcohol was sold. The applicant had spoken to him and had asked him to contact him if there was any problem. The resident stated that he was not reassured that there was a proposed noise condition that the licensee would be asked to take appropriate action if there was a substantiated noise complaint. He said noise disturbance occurred at different times of the day but there was an increase around midnight when people emerged from the pubs. People congregated at the end of Berriman Road. He did not notice much noise beyond this time but was worried that it would increase.

The applicant stated that this was a café. He stated that the resident had not heard any noise outside the normal noise levels. He respected the residents and monitored his customers. He had a recycling and waste management policy and employed a private company to collect the rubbish above that which is provided by the local authority. Customers would be asked to leave the area completely. They would uphold the licensing objectives of the prevention of crime and public nuisance and would respect the public, including neighbours. They would uphold the objective of prevention of children from harm. This was not a bar or pub and was just a small café.  The licence would not make a big change to how it was currently operating. Music would be background only. They would uphold all the licensing objectives. They would work with the licensing authority and the police and observe the licence conditions at all times.

In response to questions, the applicant stated that this was a café and not a club. He just wanted to sell some alcohol. There was an open porch in the front. Customers were allowed outside to smoke, only two  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

The licensing officer advised that all conditions had been agreed with the responsible authorities. There had been one resident objection remaining but the resident had emailed yesterday evening and stated that they withdrew their objection on the basis of revised hours.

The legal officer advised that in normal circumstances there would be no requirement for a hearing as delegated powers would apply. However, in this instance the representor gave less than 24 hours notice and there was a legal requirement for the representor to withdraw the representation at the meeting.

The Sub-Committee was concerned that the resident was not at the hearing to withdraw the representation in person and the Sub-Committee could be at risk of challenge.

The applicant’s representative requested an adjournment in order that the application be considered under delegated powers the following day. 

RESOLVED

That the Sub-Committee decided to grant an adjournment requested by the applicant’s representative for the application for a new premises licence in respect of Franco Manca, 21 City North Place, N4 3FU.

REASON FOR DECISION

It was noted that the interested party had sent an email stating that she withdrew her representation after 7pm the previous day. The Licensing Act 2003 (Hearings) Regulations 2005 provide at Paragraph 10 that a party who wishes to withdraw any representation may do so a) by giving notice to the Authority no later than 24 hours before the day the hearing is to be held b) orally at the hearing.  The interested party was not at the hearing and the withdrawal of her representations had been made too late for the hearing.

The Sub-Committee noted that this item was deferred to a future meeting.

The Sub-Committee noted that all representations for this application had been withdrawn and had been agreed under delegated powers.