Agenda and minutes

Councillor Poole welcomed everyone to the meeting, asked members and officers to introduce themselves and outlined the procedures to be followed at the meeting.

Received from Councillors Gill and Ngongo.

Councillor Picknell substituted for Councillor Gill and Councillor Wayne substituted for Councillor Ngongo.

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.

None.

The Chair stated that the applications would be discussed in the order they appeared on the agenda.

The Licensing Officer reported that an application for a variation of DPS had been received to permit Mr Stefano Del Core to replace Mr Sinan Kurt as DPS.  He also reported that the applicant was not now seeking off sales of alcohol. There were additional conditions which the Licensing Authority wished to see applied to the licence and which had been discussed with and agreed by the applicants, should the Sub-Committee be minded to approve the application.  These had arisen largely as a result of the applicant’s responses to representations made by the Licensing Authority and were detailed on pages 34 and 35 of the agenda.

The Licensing Officer also reported that a certificate of lawfulness under Section 191-2 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended) was pending, though he had been copied into correspondence between the applicant and the Council’s Building Control Services, which satisfied him that this particular matter was being progressed.

In response to questions, the Police Officer reported that he had been impressed with the way the applicants had engaged with the Police and confirmed that the majority of the outstanding documentation referred to on page 40 of the agenda, comprising the representation from the Islington Police Licensing Team, had now been received. The Police Officer stated that, in view of the history of crime and disorder reported at the premises in the past, he was working with the applicants to ensure that this did not happen in the future.

The Noise Team representative stated that a copy of the calibration certificate supplied by an acoustician and the Noise Management Plan for the premises were awaited.  The applicant stated that these documents had been posted to the Council’s Noise Team on the preceding Friday.

The applicants responded to Members’ questions about the management of access to the first and second floors of the building, capacity limits on each floor of the building and how that was to be managed, controlling the flow of persons outside the venue and access to and capacity of the designated smoking area .

Members of the Sub-Committee left the room at 6.58pm to deliberate before returning at 7.10pm to announce their decision.

RESOLVED:

(a) That the application for a variation of a premises licence in respect of Best Mangal Bar & Restaurant/Club Reina, 85 Charterhouse Street EC1M 6HJ be granted to:

i)      remove conditions 16,18,25, 28 and 29 of the current premises licence in so far as they apply to the ground floor of the premises

ii)     amend the floor plans attached to the current premises licence.

(b) That the conditions detailed in appendix 3 of the report and the following conditions be attached to the licence:

That the ground floor be used solely as a restaurant

That no more than 10 smokers at a time be permitted in the designated smoking area

That capacity checks be recorded in writing hourly

That a minimum of two personal licence holders be on duty at all times

The premises may not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

The Licensing Officer reported that the applicant had agreed to the suggested conditions on page 79. However, he noted that condition 14, which related to the closure of doors and windows at the premises at all times when recorded music was being played and during trading hours, was not necessary since the premises would be operating a buzzer entry system.   A copy of a further letter (dated “12 September 2013” (sic)) from one of the persons who had made a representation was passed around to Members, outlining concerns on opening hours, the area covered by the licence and security.  The Police representative stated that the Police had made no representations against this application. He commented that the inclusion of a buzzer entry system to the premises, which formed part of one of the objections to the application, had probably been suggested by the Police, as a mitigating factor to noise from the operation of the shutters and to keep noise to the residents at a minimum.

The applicant stated that there was no buzzer to gain entry to the premises, rather an entry system, so there would be no additional noise caused to local residents. In addition, the shutter to the entrance was inside and electrical, so noise would be reduced.

In response to questions from the Sub-Committee, the applicant said that she had not liaised directly with local residents about the application, although she had spoken to the managing agent for the building.

The applicant stated that, although the application was to permit the sale of alcohol off the premises from 09:00 hours to 23:00 hours from Monday to Sunday, the expected operating schedule would be 10:00  hours to 22:00 hours, and the requested hours were mainly to give some leeway on wine tasting events. In response to a question, the applicant confirmed that there were no restrictions on planning.

Members of the Sub-Committee left the room at 7.25pm to deliberate before returning at 7.32pm to announce their decision.

RESOLVED:

That the application for a new premises licence in respect of the premises Borough Wines, 63 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QL, be granted, to permit the premises to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises from 09:00 to 23:00 on Monday to Sunday, subject to the following conditions:

The conditions outlined in appendix 3 and detailed on page 79 of the agenda, with the following amendments/additions: the addition of conditions 2-9 from the Noise Team on page 72

REASONS FOR DECISION

The Sub-Committee listened to all the evidence and submissions and read all the material. The Sub-Committee reached their decision having given consideration to the Licensing Act 2003, as amended, and its regulations, the national guidance and the Council’s Licensing Policy.

This was an application for a new premises licence for the sale of alcohol for consumption off the premises from 09:00 hours to 23.00 hours, Monday to Sunday.

The business intended to sell fine wines, craft beers and boutique spirits to a specific clientele. Wine tastings were also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

The Licensing Officer reported that, due to an error, twenty four letters from residents of Barnabas House, King’s Square, EC1, concurring with the views expressed in the letter of objection at pages 99 and 100 of the agenda, had been omitted from the papers circulated with the agenda. The Chair of the Sub-Committee read out the terms of the standard statement signed by the twenty four objectors and copies were passed to the applicant and his representative and to members of the Sub-Committee.

The Licensing Officer highlighted the fact that there was a planning restriction on the operating hours of the premises, permitting use only between the hours of 08:00 hours to 23:00 hours on weekdays and Saturdays and requiring closure on Sundays and Bank Holidays.  The application before the Sub-Committee sought permission to supply alcohol on the premises from 11:00 to 23:00 hours and late night refreshment from 23:00 to midnight, from Monday to Sunday.

The Police representative pointed out that the premises was situated in a cumulative impact zone and that there had been two and a half thousand crimes in the area in 2013/14, including assaults and anti-social behaviour.  He had asked the applicant’s agent to contact him at the end of July to discuss how they proposed to mitigate the situation and to ensure that their premises did not add to the existing problems in the area, but had not been contacted by the end of August.  He was concerned that, as the application stood, the premises could operate as another bar in the area.  If granted, he asked the Sub-Committee to consider the addition of a condition to ensure that the premises were operated solely as a restaurant.  In response to a question from a member of the Sub-Committee, the Police Officer said that anti-social behaviour was the main problem in the area, rather than crime, and there had been many Police call-outs to the area.  He also confirmed, in response to another question, that the only operating schedule he had seen from the applicant was that detailed on page 89 of the agenda and that no further documents had been supplied in that regard.

The Noise Officer stated that she had spoken with the applicant about a further condition which should be applied to the licence, if the Sub-Committee were minded to agree the application. This proposed condition had been agreed by the applicant: “That there be no bottling out, collections or deliveries between the hours of 22:00 hours and 07:00 hours”.

A representative of residents at Barnabas House in King’s Square stated that the premises was situated in a residential area and she could not understand why they proposed to stay open until midnight, when other businesses in the vicinity closed at 11pm. She and other residents remained concerned about anti-social behaviour in the area.  She stated that residents had enjoyed good relationships with other businesses in the area, that they were not opposed to the proposed new restaurant and were keen to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.