Agenda and minutes

It was moved by Councillor K Merrie, seconded by Councillor D Everitt and

RESOLVED THAT:

Councillor Clarke take the chair for the remainder of the meeting.

There were no apologies for absence received.

Under the Code of Conduct members are reminded that in declaring disclosable interests you should make clear the nature of that interest and whether it is pecuniary or non-pecuniary.

There were no declarations of interest.

PREMISES:    The Chequered Flag, 32 Borough Street, Castle Donington, Derby, DE74 2LA

APPLICANT: Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service

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

Representations have been received from two responsible authorities. 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. 

There were no questions for the Licensing Enforcement Officer.

The applicant, Mr C Abadie had nothing further to add than what was included within the report or the Licensing Enforcement Officer’s presentation.

In response to a question from Councillor K Merrie, Mr C Abadie could not comment on the other premises in Castle Donington as he had not undertaken any other fire safety inspections.

Ms L Richardson-Lewty addressed the Sub Committee on behalf of Mr R Sandham, the premises licence holder.  She explained that the premises was very small with a very welcoming atmosphere, which generally attracted older clientele.  It was reported that until the current review, there had been no incidents of crime and disorder in the five years that Mr R Sandham had owned the business and the police had only been called twice due to a troublesome customer.  She confirmed that Mr R Sandham was well aware of the reasons why the review had been instigated, and had worked very hard in the past week to address each issue raised within the report.  Ms L Richardson-Lewty expressed her concerns that the notice of the hearing had not been served as a hard copy, only electronically and was disappointed that the report pack had only been received in paper format the previous week.  Mr R Sandham had received the emails of both but was not very computer literate and therefore was expecting hard copies sooner.

Ms L Richardson-Lewty commented that Mr R Sandham regarded public safety with the upmost importance and listed the following things undertaken to address the fire safety concerns:

-        The bushes at the rear of the premises had been cleared.

-        Walls had been painted white to clearly show where the escape route was with more signs erected.

-        All barrels and rubbish had been removed from the rear of the premises and a permanent lockable store for the barrels installed.

-        Fire equipment on the premises had been tested and certified.

-        The first of many fire safety training sessions for staff had been delivered and logged.

Ms L Richardson-Lewty apologised for the missed appointments on behalf of Mr R Sandham, she explained that he was on holiday at the time and had not seen the email notifications; she reiterated her earlier comment regarding Mr R Sandham’s lack of computer skills.  She added that Mr R Sandham recognised the need to spend more time on his administrative duties, especially in relation to letter and email correspondence.

Regarding issues with waste, Mr R Sandham previously had a commercial waste contract but unfortunately, it had to be terminated as they failed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.