Agenda and minutes

Councillor Phil Graham welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced officers and members.  The licensing officer introduced himself, the applicant and the interested parties. The procedure for the conduct of the meeting was outlined.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Matt Nathan.

Councillor Convery substituted for Councillor 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 order of business would be as the agenda.

The licensing officer reported that the hours had been reduced from those initially applied for and were detailed at paragraph 1.2 of the report. Conditions on pages 31-34 of the report had been agreed by the responsible authorities. Planning permission had been approved for the rear structure although officers were waiting for action to be taken to build the structure in line with the permission granted. Planning officers had advised that an application for a change of use was no longer required.

A local resident stated that there had been noise disturbance and light pollution emanating from the premises. The back yard of the premises was surrounded by 25- 30 residential flats and due to the shed that had been erected, neighbours could hear every noise.  The construction was not fit for purpose and did not meet regulations.  It was considered that the building should be erected prior to the grant of the licence. A few parties had already taken place and whilst it was appreciated that the applicant had business difficulties a licence should not be granted at the expense of the local community. This barber shop was now trying to turn into an entertainment enterprise and it was not supported while the building was in the current state. A second resident echoed these concerns and stated that there had been some noise from the backyard even in the past month and on one occasion up until 3am. The front of the building had been locked so he had to wait to speak to someone to turn the music down, which they then did. The structure is very flimsy and neighbours found it hard to sleep. The building was not fit for purpose.  Noise and light pollution was their main concern.

In response to questions, it was stated that there was no back wall but the rear  exited onto a private locked yard. Patrons would not be able to exit from the rear of the premises.  It appeared that a tarpaulin hung over the back of the premises.  He had not witnessed patrons evacuating the premises but as there was no back wall to the construction they could hear all the noise anyway. The licensing officer informed the Sub-Committee that he had been informed by the planning officer that there was no issue with the change of use due to the Planning Use Class order made on the 1 September.  The structure had not been built but he understood the applicant was going to carry out the work.  The licensing officer understood that the planning officer had made a site visit and he himself had visited the premises with the police. It was noted that the applicant had agreed to background music only and was not applying for regulated entertainment in the form of music.

The applicant stated that he appreciated the concerns expressed and thought he had reduced the amount of noise and light pollution.  Planning permission had been granted and the building had been built with fire  ...  view the full minutes text for item 196.

The Sub-Committee noted that this item had been withdrawn as conditions had been agreed by all parties.