Agenda and minutes

It was moved by Councillor J Hoult, seconded by Councillor J Simmons and

RESOLVED THAT:

Councillor AC Saffell 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 interests you should make clear the nature of that interest and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest, registerable interest or other interest.

No interests were declared.

PREMISES: Go Local, Coalville Market, 34 Belvoir Road, Coalville, LE67 3PN.

APPLICANT: Muhammed Zadayee

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

Representations have been received from one member of the public. A Notice of Hearing inviting them to attend has been sent. 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 in attendance and outlined the procedure to be followed.

The Licensing Act 2003 (Hearing) Regulations 2005 state 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 would be 10 minutes.

Tonya Cooper, Licensing Enforcement Officer, presented the report to Members, highlighting the licensable activity applied for, the licensing objectives, Licensing Policy and representations received. Officers confirmed they were satisfied that correct notification procedures had been followed.

Questions were invited. The Legal Advisor wished to know whether officers had seen the Personal Licence of the Applicant. Officers advised that they had not seen this yet, however noted that it would be common procedure until following the approval of an application.

The Interested Party raised concerns that the Public Notice was not widely enough published, however officers assured him that the minimum requirements had been met.

A member asked whether there had been any investigation into the character of the Applicant and officers advised that the police would have investigated this and carried out thorough checks. As the police had not objected to the application, then it could be assumed that there had been no previous problems or issues with the Applicant.

The Applicant’s representative, Ms JuneClarke (the Agent), addressed the meeting to present the application. She highlighted that the shop for which the licence had been applied for would be situated amongst other retail properties. She informed the hearing that there would be ample parking, with a large public car park situated in the immediate vicinity of the Applicant’s premises.

The agent confirmed that a full risk assessment and thorough research had been carried out into the area. The agent outlined the measures which the Applicant would take to ensure legal requirements were adhered to, which included the use of CCTV, a compliance log, induction training, posters, proxy signs and also a refusals policy.

It was agreed time to make a representation be extended to 15 minutes, with the proviso that this would be made available to all parties.

The Agent asserted that the Interested Party had petitioned against potential competition.

There were no member questions therefore the Interested Party received an invitation to pose any questions arising to the Agent.

The Interested Party disputed claims that he operated his business from outside of the local area, and felt it was unfair to assert that he had not been invested in the local area.

The Interested Party was invited to make his representation.

He expressed concerns that alcohol had been a problem in the area and that there had been issues around alcoholism. He informed the meeting that he had refused to serve people who had been intoxicated and stated that it would potentially exacerbate crime and anti social behaviour should the local area be saturated with premises vending alcohol. The Interested Party emphasised his community links and informed the meeting that regardless of the decision  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.