Agenda and draft minutes

There were none.

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.

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.

An application has been received from Kent Police for an Expedited Review of the premises licence at Fleur De Lis, 46 Gillingham Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4RR. The Act requires expedited premises licence review applications to be considered within 48 hours, pending a full hearing of the issues within 28 days of the date that the application was served. In this case, the interim steps were agreed at a hearing held on 22 July 2020 where it was determined that the premises licence for Fleur De Lis be suspended, pending the full review hearing, which is the matter before the Panel.

Discussion:

The Chairman asked the Licensing Manager to outline the matter before the Panel. The Licensing Manager stated that, in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003, the Council had received an application for an expedited review from Kent Police in relation to the premises licence for Fleur De Lis, 46 Gillingham Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4RR, as the premises had been associated with serious crime and disorder. She explained that the Licensing Act 2003 required expedited premises licence review applications to be considered within 48 hours to consider what interim steps should be taken, pending a full review hearing within 28 days of the date that the application was served.

The Licensing Manager stated that the interim steps had been agreed at a hearing held on 22 July 2020, where it was determined that the premises licence for Fleur De Lis be suspended, pending the full review hearing, which was the matter before the Panel. The steps that the Panel could consider taking were:

(a)       the modification of the conditions of the premises licence;

(b)       the exclusion of licensable activities from the scope of the licence;

(c)       the removal of the designated premises supervisor from the licence;

(d)       the suspension of the licence;

(e)       the revocation of the licence.

The following documents were included in the main agenda pack: -

• Appendix A - pages 11 to 14, The Decision of the Interim Hearing held on 22 July 2020
• Appendix B – pages 15 to 20, The current Premises Licence
• Appendix C – pages 21 to 34, Representations in support of the premises
• Appendix D – pages 35 to 36, Representation from the public in support of the application for review:
• Appendix E – pages 37 to 38, Representation from the freehold owner of the premises.
• Exempt Appendix F – pages 41 to 42, Certificate from Kent Police
• Exempt Appendix G – pages 43 to 45, Application for review from Kent Police

A supplementary agenda had been published on 7 August 2020, which included the following documents:

• Appendix H – pages 3 to 12, Supplementary evidence pack from Kent Police
• Appendix I – pages 13 to 16, Witness statement from Kent Police
• Appendix J – pages 17 to 23, Email and photographs in relation to staff training at the premises.

PC Hill explained that an incident of serious crime and disorder had occurred at the premises on Sunday 19 July for which there was an ongoing investigation. A list of previous incidents at the premises notified to Kent Police was included in the supplementary evidence pack.

The Panel resolved to exclude the press and public from the hearing to enable CCTV footage of the incidents on 19 July 2020 to be shown. Two offences were being investigated in relation to the incident, the first being an assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) and the second more serious assault occasioning grievous bodily harm (GBH). In addition, the crime scene had been cleaned following the incidents, although since the previous hearing it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 161.

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

Decision:

The press and public were excluded from the meeting during consideration of the exempt appendices to enable the Panel to view CCTV and also during the Panel’s deliberations and decision making in respect of agenda item6, because consideration of this matter in public would disclose information falling within paragraphs 1, 5, and 7 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.