Agenda item

Application for a new Premises Licence, News Plus, 3 Shirley Avenue, Chatham, Kent, ME5 9UP

The applicant has applied for a new Premises Licence in respect of News Plus, 3 Shirley Avenue, Chatham, Kent, ME5 9UP. All responsible authorities have been consulted in line with the Licensing Act 2003.

 

Representations from a business against the application, and a Petition in support of the application, have been received. No agreements have been reached.

Minutes:

Discussion:

 

The Chairman asked those present to introduce themselves and explained the process that the hearing would follow.

 

The Licensing Officer stated that, in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003, the Council had received an application for a new premises licence in respect of News Plus, 3 Shirley Avenue, Chatham, Kent, ME5 9UP. She confirmed that the application had been correctly advertised in the local press and notices displayed at the premises for the required period.

 

The application was for the supply of alcohol off the premises between 0700 hours and 2100 hours, Monday to Sunday. In accordance with section 9.14 of the Amended Guidance to the Licensing Act, the Licensing Officer had been in discussion with Planning Services and confirmed that the premises had no planning history so class or hours could not be confirmed.

 

Representations had been received from a local business and Kent Police. Following discussions between the applicant and Kent Police, a number of proposed conditions to be attached to the operating schedule had been agreed and Kent Police had therefore withdrawn their representation. These conditions were circulated to members of the Panel and were as follows:

 

  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, 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 upon reasonable request. 

 

  • 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 upon reasonable request.

 

  • 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 within 24 hours unless the CCTV will be repaired before that time.

 

  1. 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. 

 

  • 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 upon request either electronically or hard copy.

 

  1. No beer, lager or cider above 6.5% ABV will be sold.

 

  1. No single can sales of beer, lager or cider will be made only 4/6 pack sales.

 

The following documents were included in the agenda report for the Panel’s consideration: -

 

•      Appendix A – The application for a new premises licence.

•      Appendix B – Location Plan.

•      Appendix C – Copies for representations against and in support of the application.

 

The Chairman invited the applicant’s representative to present the application for a premises licence. Ms Silvester said that the applicant was a licence holder with 13 years’ experience. He always adopted a responsible attitude and had never encountered any problems operating his businesses. With reference to the representation against the application, Ms Silvester commented that Asda was located half a mile away and was not, in her opinion, relevant to this application. News Plus would be used by local residents.

 

During questioning, it was clarified that the existing off licence in the local area closed at 2000 hours and that the petition referred to in the representation against the application had not been submitted to the Licensing Unit.      

 

As the objector was not present at the hearing, the Chairman invited the applicant’s representative to sum up. Ms Silvester emphasised the applicant’s experience as a licence holder and expressed the view that 2100 hours was a reasonable end time for the licensable activity and should not cause any concerns in the local area.

 

The applicant and his representative and the Licensing Officer left the room during the Panel’s deliberations and returned before the Chairman announced the Panel’s decision.

  

Decision:

 

1.     The Panel considered all the written evidence before it and had listened carefully to the oral evidence presented by the applicant’s representative and unanimously decided to grant a premises licence for News Plus, 3 Shirley Avenue, Chatham, Kent, ME5 9UP.

 

2.    In granting the licence as applied for, the Panel determined that the conditions agreed between Kent Police and the applicant, as set out above, would be attached to the operating schedule of the licence.

Supporting documents: