Agenda and draft 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 Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Carroll.  Councillor Basu substituted for Councillor Carroll.

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 considered at item 7 below).

None.

None.

The Chair will explain the procedure that the Committee will follow for the hearing considered under the Licensing Act 2003. A copy of the procedure is attached.

The Chair outlined the summary, on pages 1 and 2 of the agenda pack.

To consider an application for a premises licence.

a.         Licensing Officer’s Introduction

Daliah Barrett, Licensing Officer, introduced the application for a premises licence at Munch, 143 Crouch Hill, N8 9QH, set out on pages 3 to 27 of the agenda pack and drew the Committee’s attention to the following areas:

1.         Police representation had been received and the conditions proposed, relating to CCTV and maintaining an incident log, had been agreed by the Applicant;

2.         all premises with capacity lower than 500 persons that were granted a license to supply alcohol now had an automatic entitlement  to play live and recorded music until 2300 hours without a licence;

3.         an SIA registered door supervisor would be present for the duration of any music events and not at all times. In response to further questioning the Committee was informed that live music events might take place a few times a month;

4.         the Applicant had applied for a flexible change of use of the premises and, whilst  representations had mentioned planning concerns, planning matters were not a consideration for the Licensing Committee;

5.         there were no objections to the Applicant tabling photographs of the exterior of the premises.

b.         Representations from Members of the Public

The Committee heard from five objectors (two of which made a joint representation) who raised the following points:

1.         there were no sound-proofing measures within the premises.  New and expectant parents attended the crèche next door to the premises for evening support groups and yoga.   They would be disturbed by noise coming from inside the venue, and potentially from people congregating outside;

2.            noise from the venue would disturb residents living above, and could disrupt children’s sleeping patterns, which would have a knock-on effect on their performance at school;

3.         the application presented the potential for harm to children entering and leaving the crèche by people smoking outside the premises and possible broken glass on surrounding pavements;

4.         smoke from patrons standing outside the premises smoking could enter into the residential units above, where windows were often open;

5.         patrons drinking alcohol could cause further nuisance by vomiting and urinating outside the crèche and residential entrances;

6.         there were no measures in place for the storage of waste on the premises and waste might be left on the pavement outside;

7.         the premises entrance was on the same door step as the residential entrance and concerns were raised about emergency evacuation procedures;

8.         the premises door opens outwards, obstructing the residential entrance.  The objectors raised concerns about their safety as they would have to walk past SIA staff and potentially intoxicated patrons obstructing the entrance to their homes.

c.         Applicants response to the representations      

The Applicant’s representative, Mark Thomas, provided the following information, in response to the objections raised:

1.         the Applicant did not intend to operate as a bar but as a premises serving alcohol with food. In response to questioning it was recognised that not all patrons would order food with their drinks. However, the Applicant would provide complementary light snacks with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

To consider any new items of urgent business admitted under item 3 above.

None.