Agenda item

The applicant has applied to vary a current Premises Licence in respect of Dixy Chicken & Pizza, 46 Canterbury Street, Gillingham ME7 5TX to extend the hours of trade in respect of: -

Late night refreshment - Tuesday & Wednesday from 23:00 to 02:30 hours the following morning and Thursday from 23:00 to 03:00 hours the following morning.

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

Representations have been received from the police, local businesses and members of the public and to date no agreements have been reached.

Discussion:

The Licensing and Local Land Charges Manager advised that, in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003, the Council had received an application for a variation of a premises licence in respect of Dixy Chicken and Pizza, 46 Canterbury Street, Gillingham.

She advised that the application had been correctly advertised in the local press and notices displayed at the premises for the required timescale.

The following documents were included for the Panel’s consideration:

• Appendix A – pages 9 to 29 – a copy of the original application submitted.
• Appendix B – pages 31 to 33 a copy of the existing licence
• Appendix C – page 34 – a location plan showing the approximate location of the application
• Appendix D – pages 35 to 105 copies of representations received from the Police, local businesses and members of the public.

In accordance with section 9.14 of the Amended Guidance to the Licensing Act, Licensing officers had been in discussions with Planning and it was confirmed that the current planning position was for class A3 (take away and café).

The application was brought to the Panel for consideration because of the relevant representations received.

The applicant’s representative, Mr Hassan, stated that he did not wish to add anything to the detail of the application but responded to a number of questions from objectors as follows:

• There were no specific plans planned to deal with dispersal of customers from the premises arising from the applied for increase in hours of opening
• The drivers from Dixy Chicken and Pizza mainly park in the car park at the rear of the premises and after 10pm there is only one driver
• The reason for the application for an extension of hours was to cater for the needs of students studying at the University late into the early hours
• He was unable to specify what the licensing objectives were
• He confirmed he was one of the managers at the premises and tended to work mainly the night shift
• In the event of anti social behaviour there were three staff at the premises who were trained in self defence who would initially deal with the incident.  If that failed the Police would be called by the Safer Medway radio.  He stated that sometimes the door staff from Bliss nightclub would assist in this dispersal.

He then responded to a query from the Panel by stating that out of the nights applied for an increase he anticipated that only Thursday was likely to be an issue in relation to incidents as the night club was not often used on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The objectors then put forward their views in opposition of the application.  Concern was raised by the representative of Bliss night club who referred to the fact that on occasions the night club were unable to comply with their own dispersal policy of moving people from their night club because they congregate outside of Dixy Chicken and Pizza.  She emphasised it was not the responsibility of the Bliss night club to deal with anti social behaviour which took place at Dixy Chicken and Pizza.  Her concern was that if the application for extended hours was agreed the already difficult situation would be exacerbated.

Miss Armitt, on behalf of the local residents, also spoke against the application and referred to the anti social behaviour, unacceptable noise and problems with cars queuing outside of Dixy Chicken and Pizza, as well as issues with waste being left in the road.  She referred to having called the Police on a number of occasions and reporting the problems to ward councillors.  The concern of residents of that area was that extending the hours of opening of Dixy Chicken and Pizza would just make the situation worse.  There were also plans to extend the accommodation for students in Green Street from 80 students to 120. 

DC Gill Angus from Kent Police set out the concerns of the Police which were also about the potential increase in anti social behaviour, unacceptable noise, fighting and general crime should the extended hours be agreed.  She stated that in the past year there had been 218 calls to Kent Police about problems in that vicinity, two in the past month directly related to Dixy Chicken and Pizza. The fact that Dixy Chicken and Pizza had three staff trained in self defence implied the owners of the premises knew there were likely to be problems in the vicinity.

She stated that there appeared to have been no consideration given to the licensing objectives and in particular the protection of children from harm.  There were particular problems with traffickers in the area and the Police were working with businesses in the area in an attempt to give protection to vulnerable people.

There had been problems with CCTV in the past not being available but following a recent compliance visit she was able to report that this had now been rectified.

Responding to a further question Mr Hassan confirmed that there was no intention to employ more staff to deal with dispersal should the application be agreed.

In relation to the proximity of Bliss night club to Dixy Chicken and Pizza, Miss O’Neill confirmed there was about a hundred yards between them.  She also stated that the night club was occasionally open on a Wednesday but not generally on a Monday or Tuesday night.  She referred to the different events at the night club and stated that on Sundays when younger people attended the night club they were only able to leave the premises when collected by an adult.

All interested parties withdrew from the room during decision making. On their return the Chairman made the following statement:

The Panel, having listened carefully to all the statements made by the applicant and objectors were of the opinion that extending the hours of operation could only worsen an already poor situation with regards to the lack of control, drunkenness and anti-social behaviour.

The Panel were concerned that the applicant’s representative did not know the licensing objectives and further were not convinced that the applicant would be able to enforce those objectives beyond the levels already being managed.

For these reasons the Panel unanimously agreed to refuse the application to extend the hours of operation.

Decision:

The Chairman stated that the Panel’s decision was to refuse the application for a variation to the premises licence at Dixy Chicken and Pizza on the grounds that they were of the opinion that extending the hours of operation could only worsen an already poor situation with regards to the lack of control, drunkenness and anti-social behaviour in the area.

The Panel were concerned that the applicant’s representative did not know the licensing objectives and further were not convinced that the applicant would be able to enforce those objectives beyond the levels already being managed.