Agenda and draft minutes

Please note this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method.  Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on.  By entering the ‘meeting room’, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

The Chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual, or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred to the filming of meetings and this information was noted.  

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with under item 7 below).

There was no urgent business.  

There were no declarations of interest.  

The Sub-Committee will first hear from the Licensing Officer.  After that, the applicant will present their application and the Sub-Committee and objectors will have the opportunity to ask questions. Then, the objectors will present their case and the Sub-Committee and objectors will have the opportunity to ask questions. 

All parties will then have the opportunity to sum up, and then the meeting will conclude to allow the Sub-Committee to deliberate and reach a decision. This decision will then be provided in writing within five working days of this meeting.

The Chair provided a summary of the procedure for the meeting.  

To consider an application for a new premises licence.

Presentation by the Licensing Officer

Ms Daliah Barrett, Licensing Team Leader, informed the Sub-Committee that:

·         The application had been subject to an objection from the Police and the Noise and Nuisance team.

·         The applicant had agreed to conditions submitted by the Police.

·         The Noise and Nuisance team had also submitted conditions to which the applicant had not agreed to.

·         The premises was situated in a terrace of retail units on the ground floor. There were also residential properties above it.

·         The business was described as a Caribbean restaurant wishing to provide alcohol and music.

Presentation by the applicant

The applicant, Ms Janet Nyantakyi, informed the Sub-Committee that:

·         She had made an application to sell alcohol at the premises.

·         Council staff attended the premises and informed her that she was not allowed to display alcohol and gave her a warning.

·         She removed all alcohol from the display and stopped selling it.

·         Council staff visited the premises again and found that she was not selling alcohol.

·         She would ask appropriate staff members to help her get a licence to sell alcohol.

·         She was only selling food and people in the area were aware there were off licences in the area that sold cheap alcohol and they often went to buy alcohol there and ate at her premises.

·         She had put up posters inside and outside the premises informing people that they could bring their own alcohol and spend £25 for food.

·         Patrons often brought alcohol and ate at the premises.  

·         If a patron was misbehaving because of because they were under the influence of alcohol, she found it difficult to ask them to stop because currently, they were buying it from outside the premises. However, if she was selling the alcohol, then she could stop them from buying alcohol. 

·         Sometimes people would ask her to buy alcohol from across the road and it was a big risk to her to do that. 

·         She wanted to be able to sell alcohol as she did not want to go back to using universal credit.

In response to questions, Ms Nyantakyi, informed the Sub-Committee that:

·         She had no staff. She worked alone.

·         CCTV and refusal logs had been set up.

·         She did not want to claim benefits and was doing everything by herself. She had no support.

·         If a patron came in and brought alcohol and started misbehaving, she could control the person because she would control the supply of alcohol. She could then employ someone to work at the premises.

·         Mr Maxwell was part of the business, but was not working at the premises.

·         Patrons would often eat with drinks.

·         She was aware that patrons needed to provide proof of age to be able to buy alcohol.

·         She had put up a notice for patrons that they needed to behave themselves and not create noise because residents lived in the area and they did not want to experience noise.

·         She had set up 30 chairs at the premises, but only about four or five  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider an application for a new premises licence.

This application was withdrawn from the agenda.

To consider any items of urgent business as identified at item 3.

There were none.