Agenda and minutes

Councillor Phil Graham 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 Anjna Khurana 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.

An application for an expedited review under Section 53A of the Licensing Act 2003 was received on the 20 October 2021.  The Licensing Authority must consider whether to take interim steps, pending a full review hearing, within 48 hours.  Due to the short timescale, this item was put forward as urgent in order to comply with the Licensing Act 2003.

The licensing officer reported that there was no further information to add to the report.

The police reported that there had been a serious incident on the 16 October at the premises and it was considered that an expedited review was the only option open to them. Four males had attended the venue in search of the victim.  The victim was located outside the premises and after stabbing him several times, the suspects ran off. The victim’s father then took him to hospital.  The police had concerns regarding the venue staff. The venue did not call the police and staff then cleaned the crime scene with the intention of destroying any trace of forensics.  It was a condition of the licence that the police should be called in such circumstances. This delayed the investigation of the crime.  The designated premises supervisor was present in the venue at the time.  The actions were contrary to the licensing objectives. There had been a similar incident in 2019 where actions taken by the venue had been identical and where the victim had died.  The police had no faith that the venue was a safe operation and strongly recommended suspension of the licence pending a full review. 

In response to a question from the Sub-Committee, it was noted that the CCTV, that captured post incident events, would be available at the full review hearing.

The premises licence holder stated that he agreed that staff had acted totally inappropriately.  He had questioned staff, who had no response and they had been dismissed. He stated that the area that they were cleaning was not where the crime had taken place and the four males had not gone through the bar but had found the victim outside the premises. This was a community pub and 90% of patrons were not involved in any trouble.  The designated premises supervisor and the bar staff had been completely wrong. He had another designated premises supervisor ready to take over the running of the premises.

In response to questions, the licensee accepted that the crime scene could extend to some distance and not just where the stabbing took place. The incident itself was not covered by CCTV. Smokers stood outside the premises, there was no definitive smoking area. The licence holder stated that he considered that the crime took place by the bins of nearby council flats.

In summary, the police stated that the crime scene extended all around the pub where blood splatters would have been located. It was clear that the decision making in the venue was deep rooted and the police could not risk this continuing.

The premises licence holder stated that this was the only premises where local people could go and they would be penalised.  He considered that staff could not have prevented the crime but the cleaning of the outside area afterwards was wrong.

RESOLVED

That the premises licence, in respect of The Royal Oak, 250 St John’s Way, N19 3RJ be suspended with immediate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 277.