Meeting documents

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Sub Committee requested legal advice and adjourned the meeting briefly at 6.40pm. The meeting re-convened at 6.45pm. The Legal Advisor explained that the Chairman asked for advice regarding declarations of interest as he was an acquaintance of the Trading Standards Officer from the County Council. She went on to explain that the Chairman would not have an interest as the Officer was at the meeting representing the Council and not himself. She asked if any of the parties had any representations or objections to make on this point. All parties had none.

The Chairman introduced the parties and explained 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 for each presentation be ten minutes.

The Licensing Enforcement Officer presented the report and highlighted background information and the grounds for the review.

The representative for the premises, stated that there had been a misprint within the report and that the test purchase conducted in June was actually the 28th not the 26th.

Sergeant S Moore then presented the application as detailed within the report.

The Chairman asked why the 'public safety' and 'the prevention of public nuisance' licensing objectives were used in the review. Sergeant S Moore stated that under aged sales of alcohol has an impact on all of the licensing objectives. He also stated that there had been incidents in the area involving young people and alcohol but nothing which could be directly linked to the premises.

Mr K Bradley (representative of Measham Parish Council) stated that he had been told by the premises that training manuals were used and asked if the police had seen them. Sergeant S Moore responded that he believed there were training manuals used but he had not seen them personally.

There were no questions from the representative of the premises licence holder, to the applicant.

The Officers from the Trading Standards Department then presented their representations as detailed in the report.

Mr K Bradley (Representative of Measham Parish Council) presented his representation as detailed within the report. He expressed his disappointment of Tesco as the parish council had attempted to contact the head office on many occasions with regards to the problems at the premises and had not received a response.

Mr G Gallen (representative of the premises) apologised to Mr K Bradley for the lack of contact from Tesco and reassured that there would be contact in the future and meetings arranged. He ensured that the CCTV in the premises was robust and correctly in place, and would not be removed. The police where satisfied with the operation of the CCTV. This meant that there would be no need to place a condition regarding this onto the licence. Mr Gallen explained that the company did take issues such as this very seriously, plus that that the company was comprehensive and positive with a good training programme. He explained that due to this incident, the training has been sent for an external assessment which has been completed and was now approved by the British Institute of Innkeepers. The police and Trading Standards confirmed they were satisfied with the training procedures.

Mr Gallen explained that improvements had been made since the sales, there had been a change of Designated Premises Supervisor and a good management team has been put together. Mr Gallen referred to the separate training bundle which had been circulated to the Members prior to the meeting and explained the actions implemented to prevent the incident occurring again.

With regards to the staff members who made the sales, Mr Gallen stated that they had been trained many times and fully accepted what they had done. All staff concerned had been disciplined. He explained that as authorisation for age restricted sales at the self service tills were conducted at the main till, which was quite a distance away, the company were considering changing the layout of the store to bring them closer together. Also sales had been analysed and during busy periods a member of staff would be placed on the self service tills to monitor.

A Member asked if signs were placed around the store to remind staff of age restrictions. Mr Gallen responded that there were notices and that they had all recently been refreshed. In response to a question from a member the process of using a self service till was explained. It was stated that the usage of the self service tills was roughly 50 per cent of all sales.

In response to a question from a Member, Mr Gallen stated that the premises were in the process of changing the layout and that Trading Standards would be consulted.

In response to a question from Mr K Bradley, it was explained that once an underage sale has been made, an investigation was undertaken to assess where the weaknesses were and more training would be given.

In response to a question from Mr K Bradley, Mr Gallen stated that the 'Think 30' policy was trialled in stores but was no longer in use. The company were currently looking into using the 'Think 25' policy.

All parties gave a brief closing statement, summing up points previously made during the meeting.

At 8.00pm the Sub Committee adjourned to consider its decision and re-convened at 8.55pm.

The Legal Advisor read out the Members decision, findings of fact and the reasons for the decision.