Agenda and minutes

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

Councillor Browne was elected Chairperson for this meeting.

There were none.

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

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

The Chairperson will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he/she has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report. 

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 new Premise Licence for 1A Victoria Street, Gillingham, Medway, ME7 1ED.

All responsible authorities have been consulted in line with the Licensing Act 2003.

Representations have been received from the Public Health team and the Police. No agreements have been reached.

The Licensing Officer informed the Panel that the applicant had applied for a new Premise Licence for 1A Victoria Street, Gillingham, Medway, ME7 1ED. All responsible authorities had been consulted in line with the Licensing Act 2003 and representations had been received from the Public Health team and the Police. No agreements had been reached due to the premises being in the Cumulative Impact Policy area.

The Chairperson invited the applicant and their representative to speak in support of their application.

The applicant’s representative, Mr. Fender, explained to the Panel that this was a new application for a convenience store under the Premier franchise with the intention to open the premises from 6am to 11pm seven days per week. The Panel were informed that if a licence to sell alcohol was granted then the intention was to sell alcohol from Monday to Sunday 9am until 11pm. Mr. Thayananthan’s previous experience of managing licensed premises in a Cumulative Impact Policy area was drawn to the Panel’s attention as were the proposed conditions detailed in pages 24-26 of the application (Appendix A to the report).

Mr. Fender advised the Panel that Kent Police had informed him that due to the location of the premises in the Cumulative Impact Policy area the application was likely to be refused unless the premises were shown to be exceptional. The Panel were informed that the S.182 of the Licensing Act does not state that a premises must be exceptional but that it can be treated as an exception to the Cumulative Impact Policy if measures were proposed to show that there would be no adverse impact and that the premises would not add to the cumulative impact. It was explained that the proposed conditions addressed issues in the Cumulative Impact Policy arears including street drinking. It was proposed that the premises would not sell, display or offer for sale single cans of beer or cider, single bottles less than 500ml, no beers lagers or ciders exceeding 5.5% abv and no spirits less than 200ml.

The Chairperson asked the objectors if they had questions for the applicant. In response to questions from Kent Police regarding whether Mr Thayananthan intended to operate the new premises and another premises he managed in Luton Road once it reopened after fire damage was repaired, Mr Fender confirmed that he would be operating both premises with an individual designated premises supervisor for each site and all staff would be trained.

The Panel questioned the applicant regarding the franchise arrangements for the proposed premises and whether he had experienced any difficulties whilst operating the premises in Luton Road. In response the applicant confirmed the franchise arrangements and explained that he had not had any problems in the last 3 years at the Luton Road premises. The Panel also asked the applicant to explain what the licensing objectives were and how we intended to promote them and deal with any difficulties he could experience with customers.

The Objectors were the given the opportunity to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 541.

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 disclose information falling within paragraph5 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.