Agenda and minutes

The Panel is requested to elect a Chairman for the hearing in line with rules agreed by the Licensing and Safety Committee. 

 Councillor Mrs Diane Chambers was elected Chairman for this meeting.

There were none.

To agree that the Chairman, after consultation with the other members of the Panel, sign the record of this meeting outside the meeting. 

It was agreed that the Chairman, after consultation with the other members of the Panel, would sign the record of this meeting outside the meeting.

There were none. 

Members are invited to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Significant Interests in accordance with the Member Code of Conduct.  Guidance on this is set out in agenda item 5.

Disclosable pecuniary interests

There were none.

Other significant interests (OSIs)

There were none.

Other interests

There were none.

The applicant has applied for a variation of the Premises Licence in respect of the Brasenose Club, 168-170 Nelson Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4LU. All responsible authorities have been consulted in line with the Licensing Act 2003.

The application before Members is as amended by the applicant following consultation and agreement with the Police. The applicant has amended the original application. Further representations have been received from members of the public and a Ward Councillor to date no agreement has been reached. 

Discussion:

The Chairman asked those present to introduce themselves and explained the process that the hearing would follow as outlined in the agenda.

The Licensing Officer stated that, in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003, the Council had received an application for a variation of the premises licence for the Brasenose Club, 168-170 Nelson Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4LU. The application requested the removal or variation of some of the conditions attached to the licence.

The Licensing Officer confirmed that the application had been correctly advertised in the local press and notices had been displayed at the premises for the required timescale. The application had been referred to the Licensing Hearing Panel for determination because the Council had received relevant representations relating to all four licensing objectives from members of the public and a Ward Councillor. The application had been amended following consultation and agreement with the Police. The amended application was as set out at Appendix 3 to the agenda report.

The Chairman invited the applicant, Mr Bakhshish Sandhu, to present the application. Mr Sandhu said that he had taken over the running of the club seven years ago and that the Licensing Unit or Police had not raised any issues with the way it was managed. He considered that many of the conditions attached to licence were not needed and he was therefore seeking to have them removed.

The Chairman invited the objector, Mr Reeds, to question Mr Sandhu and he asked why the applicant was seeking to remove the conditions as they had been attached to the licence because of anti-social behaviour by club members and guests. Mr Sandhu responded that Mr Reeds was referring to a time before he had taken over the running of the club. Mr Reeds expressed concern that the removal of condition 11, which required the premises to close 30 minutes after last orders, could lead to late night drinking, adding that he had suffered noise disturbance at 00:20 hours. Mr Sandhu reminded Mr Reeds that he could contact him by phone in such instances. Responding to a question about condition 18, which instructed staff not to admit or serve drunk or disorderly people, Mr Sandhu said that the condition was unnecessary as this already happened. Turning to conditions 22 to 24 regarding club membership, Mr Reeds expressed concern that their removal would, in effect, turn the club into a public house. In addition, he considered condition 25, requiring an acoustic report, to be sensible as the building was not designed for loud music. Mr Sandhu responded that only Mr Reeds and one other neighbour had raised concerns with him.  Mr Reeds also questioned the proposed variation of condition 27 to enable the consumption of alcohol in the beer garden until 23:00 hours. Mr Sandhu said that this was for members who wished to smoke and that noise levels were regularly checked by staff.

Next, members of the Panel questioned Mr Sandhu and asked why he was seeking the removal of condition  ...  view the full minutes text for item 961.

It is recommended that the Panel exclude the press and public from the meeting during the decision-making process for the reasons set out in the report. 

Decision:

The press and public were excluded from the meeting during the Panel’s deliberations and decision making in respect of agenda item 6, because consideration of this matter in public would disclosure information falling within paragraph 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as specified in agenda item 7 (Exclusion of the Press and Public) and, in all the circumstances of the case, the Panel considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.