Agenda item

The licensee for Super Pizza, 6 Batchelor Street, Chatham, Kent ME4 4BJ has served a Temporary Event Notice on Medway Council, Environmental Health and the Police in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003.

Event Details:  To extend the opening hours for Late Night Refreshment for the period 27^th December 2023 to 2 January 2024. 

Objections have been received from Kent Police.

Discussion:

The Licensing Manager informed the Panel that the licensee for Super Pizza had served a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) on Medway Council, Environmental Health, and the Police in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003 to extend the opening hours for late night refreshment from 01:00 hours on 27 December 2023 until 05:00 hours on 2 January 2024.

The current hours are:

23:00 hours to 01:00 hours Sunday to Thursday

23:00 hours to 02:00 hours Friday and Saturday

On 7 December 2023, Kent Police served a notice of objection to the TEN on the licensee and Licensing as they believed it would undermine the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance.

The Licensing Manager informed the Panel that the options available to them would be to:

• Take no action and permit the event in the manner described in the Temporary Event Notice.

• Issue a counter notice (i.e., refuse the event) under s 105(2)(b) if the hearing panel considers it appropriate for the promotion of the licensing objectives to do so.

• Impose one or more of the existing premises licence conditions on the Temporary Event Notice if the hearing panel consider it appropriate for the promotion of the licensing objectives to do so and if the conditions would not be inconsistent with the carrying out of the licensable activities under the Temporary Event Notice.

The Chairperson invited the applicant and his representative to present the application. Mr Khan informed the Panel that the reasons for rejecting the application were not valid as there had not been any disturbances at the premises in the past and that the additional hours applied for had not exceeded the limit of 7 days and 168 hours for temporary events. Mr Khan stated that he had letters of support from local businesses and residents but Kent Police were the only party to object. However, no letters of support were produced, and no witnesses attended in support.

For clarity the Licensing Manager explained that a temporary event has a start time and date and an end time and date from which the maximum number of days and hours were calculated and if a premises closed during this time, it would still be counted towards the maximum number of hours.

The Chairperson asked the objectors if they had questions for the applicant.

In response to questions about Mr Khan’s licence and opening hours, Mr Khan confirmed that he had held a licence for 8 years, had never had any incidents during that time and that this was the first time he had applied for later opening for the Christmas period. Mr Khan was asked if he was present at a Licensing Hearing Panel in April when he requested later opening hours and whether he was aware of the concerns raised by Kent Police then and he confirmed that he had been present and was aware of the concerns raised. Mr Khan informed the Panel that he had submitted an appeal to the magistrate’s court following the hearing in April and was awaiting a court date however the legal representative for Medway confirmed that they had not received notification of an appeal and were not aware of this.

Kent Police queried whether the intention was to allow customers to buy food during the later hours or to provide a delivery service only and Mr Khan stated that he intended to both serve customers and provide delivery but after 01:00 or 02:00 hours offer a delivery service only. In response to questions regarding how Mr Khan would deal with customers at the shop after it had closed for delivery only he stated that he would put a sign in the window, had adequate staff to deal with any disorder that may arise and had 4 CCTV cameras in place. Mr Khan confirmed he would be willing to employ security staff if required. Mr Khan was asked how he planned to mitigate against the concerns raised at the previous hearing (kitchen, extractor fan, customer and vehicle noise) and explained that there was no noise form the extractor fan, that drivers would be respectful and customer noise would not be an issue as the service would be delivery only.

The Chairperson invited Panel Members to question the applicant.

The Panel were concerned with the lack of clarity regarding whether Mr Khan intended be serve customers or provide delivery only and the impact on the local environment and residents. Mr Khan confirmed he wanted to service customers until 05:00 hours and provide a delivery service, that drivers would be respectful when delivering to residents, that any additional litter would be picked up and that he would hire security staff to deal with any potential conflict or disorder.

The objectors gave their concerns:

• Kent Police had objected to the application in relation to two of the licensing objectives – the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance.

• There was no mention of any mitigation or measures put in place to address concerns raised despite the applicant being aware of the same concerns being raised at the previous hearing.

• There was a lack of a risk assessment for the proposed event.

• There had been no consultation with Kent Police prior to submitting the application.

The applicant and Members were invited to question the objectors but did not have any questions.

In summing up the applicant had nothing further to add.

In their summing up the objectors stated that they would like to see premises prosper in Medway but this cannot be at the detriment of upholding the licensing objectives and they believe if this event was granted there would be incidents of crime and disorder or public nuisance as a result.

With the exception of the Legal Representative and Democratic Services Officers, the Chairperson asked all parties to leave the room during the Panel’s deliberations and they returned to hear the Panel’s decision.

Decision:

The Panel, having considered all the written evidence and listened carefully to the oral evidence presented by the Applicant and objectors, decided to refuse the event applied for in the Temporary Event Notice application made by Super Pizza, 6 Batchelor Street, Chatham, Kent ME4 4BJ and issue a counter notice.

The Panel were not satisfied the application promoted two key areas of the licensing objectives, namely the Prevention of Crime and Disorder and the Prevention of Public Nuisance, which the extended hours applied for in Temporary Event Notice application would likely cause.