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Agenda item

Old Queens Head, 44 Essex Road, London, N1 8LN - premises licence variation

Minutes:

The licensing officer advised that a noise management plan had been submitted and following the modification of an existing condition which had been agreed by the applicant, the noise team had withdrawn their representation.

 

In a response to concern from a member that the licence was for 270 people including staff and the application stated 270 people excluding staff, the applicant’s legal advisor stated that the applicant was willing for the 270 figure to include staff.

 

The applicant’s legal advisor confirmed that the applicant had agreed the condition proposed by the noise team. He stated that this was an unusual case. The applicant was not seeking to change capacity, hours, licensable activity; just to bring the front room into use.

 

The applicant’s legal advisor referred to the objection from the resident, who was not in attendance at the hearing, and stated they were under the misapprehension that the applicant wanted to increase capacity. The applicant was simply seeking to reconfigure the space.

 

In response to questions from members, the applicant’s legal advisor explained the location of the front room and advised it looked over Essex Road and assured the sub-committee that the 270 capacity figure would not be exceeded as this was the legal limit. The variation would give the applicant more flexibility in terms of the use of the space within the premises.

 

RESOLVED

1)     That the application for a premises licence variation in respect of the Old Queens Head be granted to :

 

-       add an additional room on the second floor of the premises but not increase the overall capacity.

 

Conditions detailed in Annex 2 and Annex 3 on pages 36, 37 and 38 of the agenda shall be applied to the licence with Condition 5 in Annex 3 amended to read

“The licensee shall appoint a noise consultant registered with the Institute of Acoustics or Association of Noise Consultants to prepare a scheme of sound insulation and noise control measures, which may include the installation of a noise limiting device, to prevent persons in the neighbourhood from being unreasonably disturbed by noise from patrons and music from the second floor front and rear room. The scheme shall be submitted for approval by the Council, and the approved scheme fully implemented to the satisfaction of the Council and the licensee notified in writing accordingly, prior to second floor of the premises being used for regulated entertainment”.

 

The following additional condition shall be applied to the licence:

Maximum levels of sound for both rooms on the second floor should be expressed on the premises licence.

 

REASONS FOR DECISION

 

The Sub-Committee listened to all the evidence and submissions and read all the

 material. The Sub-Committee reached the decision having given consideration to the

 Licensing Act 2003, as amended, and its regulations, the national guidance and the

Council’s Licensing Policy.

 

The Sub-Committee took into consideration Licensing Policies 2 & 3.  The premises

fell within the Upper Street/Angel cumulative impact area.  Licensing policy 3 created

a rebuttable presumption that applications for the grant or variation of premises

licences which were likely to add to the existing cumulative impact would normally be

refused following the receipt of representations, unless the applicant could

demonstrate in the operation schedule that there would be no negative cumulative

impact on one or more of the licensing objectives.

 

One local resident submitted written representations opposing the application and one

local resident submitted written representations supporting the application.

 

There were no verbal submissions from any residents and none of the Responsible

Authorities made any submissions.

 

The application was for variation to add an additional room on the second floor of the

premises but not to increase the overall capacity.

 

The Sub-Committee was satisfied that the granting of the application for a variation

with the added conditions, specifically the conditions in relation to numbers in that there

would be no increase to the permitted number of people in the premises including staff

at any one time. The Sub-Committee was satisfied that the granting of the application,

would not negatively impact on any of the licensing objectives.

 

The Sub-Committee accordingly decided to grant the application subject to the

additional conditions.

 

Supporting documents: