Agenda and minutes

Councillor Flora Williamson 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 8 January 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The licensing officer reported that this application had been deferred from the 18 November.  The original application was for late night refreshment until 3am and alcohol until midnight.  Following discussions with the police the application was reduced to 11pm for alcohol with no application for late night refreshment. The application was not in a cumulative impact area.  It was noted that updated information from the interested parties had been circulated and would be interleaved with the agenda.  The Sub-Committee had been made aware of the current food rating.

The interested party stated that the restaurant was poorly managed and residents would have no confidence that conditions on the licence would be adhered to.  The premises would not prevent public nuisance and did not help public safety.  He considered that as the premises were poorly managed this had an impact on local residents.  There was a history of non-compliance with regards to food safety and fire regulations.  He highlighted licensing policies 2 in relation to cumulative impact, policy 8 regarding standards of management and policy 21 in relation to public nuisance.  He stated that mopeds already caused obstructions and a nuisance.

In response to questions, the residents stated that when they had raised issues with the manager they had been ignored or had received a rude response.  Complaints had not been well received so complaints were now being directed to the managing agents.  Regarding the delivery drivers, one had been working for the restaurant but six other drivers were talking to him causing a public nuisance.  They were parked on the pavement which is the entrance to the estate.  The premises were advertising for more delivery drivers. The rear area was part of the estate and the pavement outside was public highway.

The applicant reported that the drivers causing the issues were not his drivers.  He had one driver who was closely monitored.  He had not heard of any problems in the past year and there were only a few drivers outside, not as many as seven.  He considered that applying for an alcohol licence would reduce the nuisance as customers would sit in the restaurant and not ask for a delivery. He wanted to attract his own drivers so that he could have overall control but he expected that the alcohol licence would reduce the delivery service.  He stated that his business had been closely monitored and they did not have any more issues.  He reported that the car park had a security gate which he did not have access to and was out of his control.  He considered that access to this area should be prevented by the management company. He would need an alcohol licence for the business to survive.

In response to questions he stated that he used a delivery company specialist.  The public health team visited in November and had stated that he was fully compliant and gave advice for improvements.  He stated he had been there for one year, was not happy with his delivery  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

It was noted that this item had been deferred to a future meeting.