Agenda item

Discussion:

The Panel heard an application for a review of the premises licence in respect of Sturdee Sports and Social Club, Stoke Road, Hoo, Rochester.

The Business Development and Licensing Manager informed the panel that in accordance with Section 51 of the Licensing Act 2003, the Council had received an application from Kent Police, as a responsible authority, for a review of the existing premises licence in respect of the Sturdee Sports and Social Club, Stoke Road, Hoo.  The Business Development and Licensing Manager stated that following the advertising of the review application, no relevant representations had been received from interested parties, the premises licence holder or any of the other responsible authorities.

The applicant, DC Horner, stated that the reasons for the review were as follows:-

·          There had been a breach of the licensing objective relating to the prevention of crime and disorder as one of the attendees of the event was assaulted by the DJ and suffered a broken cheekbone;

·          The licence holder did not have a copy of the premises licence;

·          Un-licensed activity was conducted in that the provision of music and dance continued until approximately 4am.

DC Horner summarised that the licence holder had failed to keep within the restrictions of the licence, had failed to produce a copy of the premises licence twice and had demonstrated a lack of control and felt that the premises licence should be revoked.

The licence holder, Mr Smith agreed with most of the comments made and explained that the bar had been closed by 1.30pm and the main dance floor had been cleared at approximately 3.30am.  He confirmed that at the time of the incident only three people were on the dance floor.

In response to a question about CCTV footage, Mr Smith confirmed that CCTV was in operation and the recording was seen by at least two police officers.  However, the footage could not be recorded onto any media so the licence holder gave an undertaking to preserve the footage for at least three days.  Unfortunately, the footage for this incident had been deleted.

Mr Smith stated that he had informed the police that the CCTV footage could not be stored for more than three days.  He had not previously been required to download any images from the CCTV unit and was therefore unaware it was unable to do so.  He also confirmed that a licence summary was now displayed at the premises.

Decision:

(1)         The Panel agreed to suspend the premises licence for two weeks;

(2)         The Panel agreed to attach the following conditions to the Premises Licence: -

·        A Personal License holder to be present and working at the Licensed Premises throughout the hours of Licensable Activity;

·        All staff to receive training that is relevant to their role within the Licensed Premises;

·        Individual training records are to be kept for every employee (paid or unpaid) of the nature frequency of the training with copies of the training material;

·        Training records are to be made available to a Police Officer, Police Licensing Officer or officer of the Licensing Authority when that request is practicable and reasonable;

·        When the premises are open to the public or a section of the public, unless in exceptional circumstance, CCTV should be used to monitor the Licensed Premises.

·        CCTV to be installed to a standard agreed by the police and in accordance with CCTV Code of Practice.  The system is to be maintained and serviced on a regular basis.  The system must incorporate a recording facility, all recordings must be stored for a minimum of one calendar month normally 28 days and access to these recordings must be made available to Police and Local Authority officers upon request when the request is reasonable and practicable.  A member of staff must be fully trained in the CCTV system and there will be at least one member of staff on duty during trading hours who is able to retrieve and produce a recording of any incident in a format that can be taken away to be viewed.

(3)         The Panel viewed this issue very seriously and stressed that if there were any future breaches of conditions then the licence could be revoked.