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 Councillors Vivien Cutler and Matt Nathan.

Councillor Satnam Gill substituted for Councillor Vivien Cutler and Councillor Marian Spall substituted for Councillor Matt Nathan.

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 licensing officer reported that a noise impact assessment had been circulated to the Sub-Committee.

The police stated that they had submitted a review of the premises on the 7 December 2019.  However, there had been serious incidents following the submission of the review. These were as detailed in the papers and occurred on the 21 December, 27 December, 28 December and the most serious incident on New Year’s Day. On this occasion, officers had attended the premises earlier in the day. There were large crowds inside pushing and blocking the entrance to the stairwell used for both entry and exit. Patrons had become quite hostile. The area needed to be cleared but it seemed that there was no control from security. Later, in the early hours of the morning, there were two groups fighting outside. One had a head injury and another was brandishing a belt and using it as a weapon. It appeared that one male had been hit with a bottle of champagne. There had also been a further incident reported at lunchtime of the day of this meeting (3 January 2020) where a female received two slash wounds from a group outside the venue.  The police were concerned that the next incident would be fatal.

The legal representative stated that the venue had operated for over 25 years and had a good licensing history.  Steps had been taken in response to issues. They had ID scans and had removed the pool. They had CCTV and were employing health and safety experts to look at how things could be improved.  An assessment had been undertaken and the conclusion had been reached that this was a well-run venue but steps could be taken to improve. There was a congestion issue which needed to be improved.  Any congestion was cleared relatively quickly but this needed to be reviewed. The head door man had been struck by a customer and it was stated that sometimes, staff did have to put up with badly behaved customers.  Investigations regarding other incidents were on-going and the premises would like to assist with this. They would want six weekly meetings with the police and were aware that they needed to regain the confidence of the authorities. They said that they could have a last entry time of 2.30 am or 3am at weekends and a closing time of 5am.

In response to questions it was noted that the designated premises supervisor (dps) was on duty on New Year’s Eve. The legal representative stated that suspension of the licence was disproportionate but they were aware of the need to pause and reflect.

In response to a question about what actions the venue was taking to prevent these issues, the dps stated that they now had an early shutdown policy, there was more monitoring of customers, they encouraged customers not to disturb residents when leaving and staff watched outside for half an hour after customers left. It was noted that they had a capacity  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.