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.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Marian Spall.

Councillor Phil Graham substituted for Councillor Marian Spall.

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 13 October 2022 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The licensing officer advised that further information from the interested party had been circulated. She had received a letter from the representative’s solicitor via the interested party. It had not been sent directly. A number of conditions had been circulated in the afternoon from the interested party but these had not been shared with the Sub-Committee as they had not been confirmed to be acceptable by the applicant’s representative. In response to queries raised in the letter from the interested party it was confirmed that details of the application had been sent to four flats in No 45, 4 flats in No 47, 5 flats in No 51 and 3 flats in No 43a. She stated that the application was advertised legally although it was best practice to provide more information than had been given in this instance. The planning team had confirmed that the premises had planning consent for alcohol to be sold as ancillary to office or other Class E use. There was a time restriction of between 9am and 6pm in relation to the outside space. There was no indication that the premises was to be a Members Club but she was concerned about the events being held and would ask for clarification. The licensing officer had contacted 11 of the petitioners who had advised that they had signed the petition as they were opposed to the grant of the application. In response to questions from the Sub-Committee it was advised that the planning restriction to the outside space was for the use to apply Monday to Friday and from 9 – 6pm only and had been imposed to ensure neighbouring residential amenity.

The resident objector stated that the immediate surroundings to the premises were heavily residential with large warehouse style buildings with original single glazed windows which offered little protection from noise including from people talking. The street was narrow and single lane with tall buildings.  The noise produced a canyoning type of effect. There were already existing high levels of noise from two clubs that were just 200 metres away and this would add to the cumulative impact. There had been another shared workspace at number 49 which had received numerous complaints.  He had been alarmed to see an application with 24/7 opening hours and a late-night licence with a capacity of 160 people. He considered that the premises would be impactful and the cumulative impact would risk being overwhelming. The petition signatories would have responded to the application if they had been aware of the application and the response to the petition represented the true strength of feeling.  He was concerned about the lack of detail included in the application. There had been no engagement with residents apart from a letter received yesterday. Their website indicated lots of references to alcohol and showed a particular customer type with unlimited amounts of alcohol.  This was a broad licence which could then be sold on.

The resident further stated that he did not believe the cumulative  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.