Issue - meetings

PREMISES:   Manhattans Night Club, 60a Market Street, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire

APPLICANT:Disco Bar Ashby Limited

To determine an application for a variation of a premises licence in respect of the above.

Representations have been received from Leicestershire Constabulary and one interested party.  A Notice of Hearing inviting them to attend has been sent to each of them.  If they fail to attend, the hearing can be held in their absence or adjourned.

The following documents are attached: -

a)    Report of the Licensing Enforcement Officer

At the beginning of the Hearing, the authority shall explain to the parties the procedure it is proposed to follow.  The Hearing shall take the form of a discussion led by the authority and cross-examination shall not be permitted unless it is required to consider the representations.

The Chairman introduced the parties and outlined the procedure to be followed.

The Hearing Regulations 2005 stated that the Authority must allow parties an equal period of time in which to present their evidence.  It was agreed that the maximum time limit for each presentation be ten minutes.

The Licensing Enforcement Officer presented the report to Members, highlighting background information and representations received.  He drew Members attention to an error within report as it stated that the VIP Rooms had surrendered its licence when in fact it had been suspended due to none payment of fees.  Therefore the licence was still current and could be utilised immediately if fees were paid.

Inspector N Rixon questioned the accuracy of the map as he believed that the premises highlighted was not Manhattan’s Night Club.  The applicant confirmed that the map was incorrect and the premises was actually further down the street.

Mr A Woods, Solicitor representing the applicant, addressed the Sub Committee.  He informed Members that there were three late licences currently in Ashby, one of these premises had previously applied for a 5.00am closing time and permission had been granted for a 4.00am closing time.  The minutes from the hearing had been included within the additional papers circulated to Members.  He reported that meetings had been held with the police to discuss the proposals and also the Town Council who raised no objections.  He explained that it was clear from customer numbers that Manhattan’s Night Club was the more popular venue and at closing time customers were leaving to go to Ciro’s Night Club due to their later licence.  He proposed that the later closing time would stop this happening as customers would stay in Manhattan’s Night Club rather than going out into Ashby in the early hours to go elsewhere.  He also argued that as last admission time would still be 1.00am, there would be no more people in the club than usual, and they would just stay in the club rather than moving on.  He highlighted to Members that there had been a number of temporary event notices granted in recent months, all of which had been successful and although there had been a number of incidents as raised by the Police, it was not unusual for a nightclub of that size.  He also pointed out that they had taken into account the police preference for staggered closing times and that was another reason why the application was for 3.00am rather than 4.00am as some other establishments had.

Councillor S Sheahan referred to the application form submitted, in particular the additional steps taken to promote the licensing objectives as parts have been left blank.  He asked if there was a reason that this part of the form had been left bank.  Mr A Woods, responded that the conditions attached to the Licence addressed the steps that were taken, for example the CCTV provision and the use of door staff.  The key step for the application was keeping the last  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4