Agenda and draft minutes

In the event the fire alarm sounds attendees will be advised to evacuate the building via the nearest fire exit and assemble at the Bottle of Notes opposite MIMA.

Fire alarm tests take place in Municipal Buildings at 10.30am on Tuesday mornings. In the event the fire alarm sounds at this time for more than 10 seconds attendees will be advised to evacuate the building via the nearest fire exit and assemble at the Bottle of Notes opposite MIMA.

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting and described the fire evacuation procedure.

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The Chair outlined the procedure to be followed and asked the Licensing Officer

to speak to the report.

Members were advised the initial application was detailed at Appendix one of the report. Members were also advised that, ideally, Sub-Committee hearings were made within 20 working days after the closure of the 28-day consultation period. However, the Licensing Act 2003 regulations allowed this to be extended, provided all parties agreed. This was the case for this application.

Following receipt of the application some reservations were raised by the Police and the Public Health Service about the operational times for the sale of alcohol, particularly at weekends. Following those concerns the Applicant amended their application and changed alcohol sale times to start at 8am rather than 7am Monday to Friday. The Police and Public Health Service were satisfied with those amendments as well as a list of modified conditions which were detailed at Appendix two of the report. 

Members were also advised that within the 28-day consultation period four objections had been received. All four objectors were advised of the revised conditions. Following this, two objections were withdrawn and two were maintained.

All parties involved in the application, including the objectors, were advised of date of hearing. Following this one further objection was withdrawn but the final objection was maintained. Members were advised the remaining objector was not in attendance at the meeting.

Comments made in the remaining objection referred to Bargain Booze located in the same area which, in their view, had attracted anti-social behaviour. While Bargain Booze had closed, the closure was not due to Council intervention and would not have been a consideration for the application.

The remaining objection also referred to a OneStop opening on Ormesby Bank. However not only was this located in a neighbouring Local Authority area, it was also clarified that commercial need was not a consideration for this application under the Licensing Act 2003.  

The Chair thanked the Licensing Officer for their summary of the report.

As Members had no questions on the report, the Chair invited the Applicant’s legal representative to introduce those present with them and present their case.

The Applicant’s legal representative introduced the Head of Property for Heron Foods and the Area Manager for Heron Foods. The Applicant’s legal representative stated the Staff Operations Procedure, listed with the agenda pack, contained commercially sensitive information. For this reason, it had not been made available to the public. However, Members of the committee had been sent a copy. It was also clarified that a witness statement by the proposed Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) had also been submitted as part of the application. As this had been redacted it was made available to the public. 

The Applicant’s legal representative stated Heron Foods offered grocery products and had 270 stores across the company that had premises licences. The store in question was flagged as benefitting from having a premises licence.

Members were advised that all staff selling alcohol were provided with relevant training which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24/3

None.