Agenda item

In accordance with the Licensing Act 2003, the Council has received an application for a new premises licence in respect of Wards News, 53 High Street, Gillingham. The matter has been referred to the Licensing Hearing Panel because a representation has been received from a member of the public.

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 and Local Land Charges Manager stated that, in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003, the Council had received an application for a new premises licence for the supply of alcohol off the premises in respect of Wards News, 53 High Street, Gillingham.  The application had been correctly advertised in the local press and notices displayed at the premises for the required timescale.

The following documents were attached to the agenda report for the Panel’s consideration:

• Appendix A - pages 9 to 28 - a copy of the original application submitted and details of the DPS.
• Appendix B – pages 29 to 31 agreed amendments to the operating schedule.
• Appendix C – page 33 - location plan showing the approximate location of the application.
• Appendix D – pages 35 to 38 copy of a representation received from a member of the public, who had confirmed that he would not be attending the hearing.

In accordance with section 9.14 of the Amended Guidance to the Licensing Act 2003, the Licensing and Local Land Charges Manager confirmed that she had been in discussion with colleagues in Planning Services and there were no relevant planning consents in respect of this property in relation to restrictions on hours.

The application sought a licence for the supply of alcohol off the premises during the hours that the premises were open to the public, which were Monday to Saturday from 7:00am until 6:00pm.

In response to the application, Kent Police had proposed that the following conditions be placed on the licence. These had been agreed by the applicant prior to the hearing.

1.     CCTV will be provided in the form of a recordable system, capable of providing pictures of evidential quality in all lighting conditions particularly facial recognition.

•     Cameras shall encompass all ingress and egress to the premises, outside the premise, fire exits and all areas where the sale and supply of alcohol occurs.

•     Equipment must be maintained in good working order, be correctly time and date stamped, recordings MUST be kept on the hard drive and kept for a period of 31 days and handed to Police on demand.  

•     The premises licence holder must ensure at all times a DPS or appointed member of staff is capable and competent at downloading CCTV footage in a recordable format to the Police and Local Authority on demand. 

•     The recording equipment and hard drive shall be kept in a secure environment under the control of the DPS or other responsible named individual. 

•     In the event of technical failure of the CCTV equipment the premises licence holder or DPS must report the failure to the Police Licensing Officer immediately at licensing.north.division@kent.pnn.police.uk

 2.  The License Holder will maintain auditable refusal/incident records. These records will detail the following:

a)   Day, Date and Time of Refusal/Incident.

b)   Nature of Refusal/Incident and reason.

c)   Details of or description of the individual.

d)   Each entry is to be checked and signed by the DPS on the day of the event.

e)   These records will be made available for inspection to any Police Officer, Police Licensing Officer, and Officer of the Local Authority immediately upon demand.

 3.  All persons that sell or supply alcohol to customers must have licensing training. 

•    Training should take place within six weeks of employment and any new employees will be supervised until the training has taken place. 

Training must include:-

a)   Avoiding sales of alcohol or age restricted products to those under the age of 18.

b)    recognising customers who appear drunk and refusing sale or supply of alcohol.

c)    knows the licensing objectives and  have read and understood licence conditions.

d)   can produce licences/certificates/permits relevant to the premises in the absence of licence holder/DPS. 

•     Refresher training should be repeated a minimum of every six months or earlier if required due to changes of legislation. 

•     Training records must be kept on the premises and shall contain the nature, content and frequency of all training.

•     Records must be made available for inspection by Police, Police Licensing Officer and authorised officers from the Local Authority on demand either electronically or hard copy.

4.    No beers, lager or cider will be sold above 5.5% ABV.

5.    No single can or bottle sales of beer, lager or cider will be made.

6.    The Licence holder shall erect and maintain clear and prominent notices displayed at all exits requesting the public to respect the needs of local residents and reminding them of the alcohol control zone.

7.    Spirits and wine are to be displayed behind the counter.

The Chairman invited the applicant to present his application for a premises licence.  He stated that he had been a newsagent for 30 years and now wished to sell convenience items to increase the profitability of his business as the demand for newspapers had reduced considerably. He stressed that his premises were not open late at night nor on Sundays, and that he had agreed to the conditions proposed by Kent Police.

In response to questions from members of the Panel, the applicant explained that the hours applied for were consistent with the premises opening hours but that he would accept a later start time for sale of alcohol. He confirmed that he no longer employed staff and that only he and his wife served in the shop. The applicant highlighted the issues that he would include in any staff training should he be in a position to employ staff in the future. He stated that he had previously sold alcohol at premises in Gravesend and, in acknowledging the concerns expressed in the written representation received by the Council against the application, he stated that he was aware of his responsibility to prevent the sale of alcohol to under age people or anyone who appeared to be intoxicated. He emphasised that he had no wish to sell single cans of alcohol. The applicant was questioned on the four Licensing Objectives and suggested how he would promote them by being a responsible licensee. He also confirmed that he would ensure that the CCTV system at the premises complied with the conditions proposed by Kent Police.

With the exception of the Legal Adviser and the Democratic Services Officer, all present left the room during the Panel’s deliberations, returning to hear the Panel’s decision.

Decision:

The Panel, having considered the evidence presented by the applicant, the conditions proposed by Kent Police, and the written representation against the application,  granted a premises licence for Wards News, 53 High Street, Gillingham, as applied for, subject to the following additional conditions and amendment to the operating schedule:

(a)     The additional conditions requested by Kent Police as set out above and at Appendix B to the agenda report.

(b)    The supply of alcohol for consumption off the premises will not be permitted before 9:30am when the premises may be frequented by school children. The permitted hours are therefore 9:30am until 6:00pm, Monday to Saturday.