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 McDonald 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.

Councillor Sands then left the meeting as his attendance was not required.

To consider a full variation application for a Premises Licence at Greedy Banker, 89-93 High Street, Rainham, Gillingham, ME8 7HS following the submission of representations, received during the consultation period.

Discussion:

The Licensing Officer informed the Panel that the applicant had submitted a full variation application for a Premises Licence at Greedy Banker, 89-93 High Street, Rainham, Gillingham ME8 7HS.

The Panel were informed that an application for a full variation of the Premises Licence had been received on 8 November 2024. The application was:

1. To extend the footprint of the outside high street area by including a strip of curtilage to the outside seating area to encompass both entrance doors, this would allow patrons to access the seating area without breaching condition 21.

2. To extend the licensable area upstairs in the cocktail bar following the removal of a partitioning wall.

3. To remove condition 11 on the premises licence “that limits the available super-strength lagers, beers and/or ciders to an ABV of 6.5% or below”.

The Licensing Officer sought clarification regarding the timings for Super Bowl events as the current licence had a terminal hour of 03:30 however the variation application stated a terminal hour of 04:00 but no change had been requested on the application form. This was identified as an error and the applicants confirmed that they were happy with a terminal hour of 03:30 for Super Bowl events.

A plan was circulated outlining the new layout in line with the application and the Licensing Officer confirmed that the Responsible Authorities had been contacted and the public notices had been advertised in accordance with the regulations at the premises, council webpage and in the local press.

The Panel were informed that on 4 December 2024, Licensing Services received a representation to the variation application in relation to the Prevention of Public Nuisance licensing objective from the Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator. The Objector did not attend the hearing.

The Chairperson invited the applicants to speak in support of their application.

The applicants explained that they had requested the extension to the footprint outside following a meeting with the Licensing Officer. The applicants explained that they would like to make use of the upstairs area as a cocktail lounge on Friday and Saturday evenings and use this space as a rentable community space during the week. The wall upstairs had been removed following a fire risk assessment.

The applicants explained that as they were a craft beer bar, the limit of 6.5% limited the range of beers they could sell. The Panel were informed that the applicants had experience of selling higher strength beers at another premises in Rochester and due to the type of clientele and higher price range, this had never caused any issues.

With regards to the representation received from Neighbourhood Watch the applicants informed the Panel that the evening in question, a new doorman, who was not properly briefed, was in attendance and propped the door open even when asked not to. The applicants explained that lessons were learnt and the next day closers were added to all doors. Processes were changed so that all doormen were briefed and the doorman was not used  ...  view the full minutes text for item 563.

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.