Agenda and minutes

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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 notice of filming at meetings and this information was noted.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Holly Harrison-Mullane. Councillor Elin Weston was in attendance as substitute.

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 Committee will first hear from the Licensing Officer.  After that, the objectors will present their case and the Committee and applicant will have the opportunity to ask questions. Then, the applicant will present their application and the 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 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 review of a premises licence.

Daliah Barrett, Licensing Officer, introduced the report which presented an application for a review of a premises licence for Star Food & Wine, 23 Westbury Avenue, Wood Green, London, N22 6BS (Noel Park). The Licensing Officer explained that the review had been submitted by Trading Standards, as responsible authority, and related primarily to the prevention of crime and disorder licensing objective. It was noted that the application was set out at Appendix 1 to the report.

It was stated that the application primarily concerned an incident at the premises on 22 March 2022 during a Trading Standards inspection. During the search, a locked safe was seized following an indication from tobacco search dogs; the safe was subsequently found to contain illegal tobacco.

The Licensing Officer noted that the premises licence holder was Hunter Supermarket Ltd and the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) was Mr Kemal Avci. It was noted that the premises was licensed for the following:

Supply of Alcohol

Monday to Sunday              0000 to 0000 hours

The opening hours of the premises:

Monday to Sunday              0000 to 0000 hours

It was noted that the Committee could modify the conditions of the licence, exclude a licensable activity from the scope of the licence, remove the Designated Premises Supervisor, suspend the licence for a period not exceeding three months, or revoke the licence.

The Licensing Officer noted that the premises had a prior licence that had been granted in 2005 and was set out in full in the agenda papers. This licence had some extensive conditions in place and it was commented that these were mainly identical to those requested as part of the review application. It was explained that, under the previous licence holder, a quantity of illicit tobacco was also found on site and, in response to the concerns raised by Trading Standards, it was agreed that a minor variation to include additional conditions was the best course of action. It was noted that the minor variation had been submitted by the current premises licence holder.

In response to questions from the Committee, the following responses were provided:

·         It was clarified that, of the conditions proposed by Trading Standards, only one would be materially new to the conditions of the existing licence.

·         It was confirmed that the request to transfer the licence from the previous to the current premises licence holder had been submitted on 12 July 2021 and the minor variation had been submitted on 19 July 2021.

Michael Squire, Trading Standards Specialist Officer, and Felicia Ekemezuma, Trading Standards Manager, introduced the application. Michael Squire explained that, in early January 2022, intelligence was received that suggested illegal tobacco was being sold at the premises. There had been an inspection on 19 January 2022 where Mr Avci was present. During inspection, no illegal tobacco products were found but there was a locked safe which, when asked, Mr Avci could not open as he stated that the keys were not on the premises. Advice was given that keys should  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

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

There were no new items of urgent business.