Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair of the panel for the 2023-2024 Municipal Year.

The Principal Committee Officer opened the meeting and invited nominations for the election of Chair of the Licensing Panel.

RESOLVED –

THAT Councillor Meric Apak be elected Chair of the Panel for the 2023/24 municipal year.

To agree the procedure rules for remote meetings.

RESOLVED –

THAT the guidance on hybrid meetings as detailed in Part 4.1 of the Council’s Constitution.

Apologies were received from Councillor Richard Olszewski.

It was noted that the hearing was still quorate with 2 members.

There were none.

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair to announce the following: “In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for at least six months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available on upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to being filmed and to the use of those images and sound recordings for webcasting and/or training purposes. If you are addressing the Committee your contribution will be recorded and broadcast.”

Webcasting

The Chair announced that the meeting was being broadcast live to the internet and would be capable of repeated viewing and copies of the recording could be made available to those that requested them. Those participating in the meeting were deemed to consent to having their contributions recorded and broadcast.

Supplementary Agenda

Since the publication of the agenda, a supplementary agenda had been published in relation to item 8, Costcutter contained additional information, 15 proposed conditions to be attached to the licence submitted by the Licence Holder’s representative.

There were none.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd June 2023.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2023 be approved and signed as a correct record.

Report of the Executive Director Supporting Communities

This is an application to review a premises licence under section 51 of the Licensing Act 2003

Consideration was given to a report of the Executive Director Supporting Communities detailing an application to review a premises licence under Section 51 of the Licensing Act 2003.

Samina Khan, Licensing Officer, summarised the report explaining that the application to review the licence had been lodged by the Police Responsible Authority because they did not believe that the licensing objective, the prevention of crime and disorder was being upheld. 14 representations had been received in relation to the application, 7 representations, including from the Licensing Authority, Public Health and Camden Council Community Safety Responsible Authorities and 4 local residents were in support of the review application on the grounds that the 4 licensing objectives were not being upheld the prevention of crime and disorder, prevention of Public Nuisance, Prevention of Public Safety and the prevention of harm to children. While 7 representations from members of the public opposed the review application.

She notified the hearing that any determination of the Panel would not have effect until the end of the period given for appealing against the decision, or if the decision was appealed against until the decision was disposed of.

In response to a question of clarification from the Chair, the Licensing officer advised that there was an administrative error in the report, the report only referred to the crime and disorder licensing Objective whereas the representations in support of the application had referred to all four licensing objectives.

The License holder’s legal representative Mr David Dadds understood the clarification provided by the Licensing Officer, agreeing that all 4 licensing objectives had been referred to in the representations remarking that, whether all 4 were not being upheld was a separate issue.

The Clerk informed the hearing that an interested party Lorraine Hayward had asked for her representation to be read out, in response the Panel commented that all representations had been read and understood and would be taken into consideration during deliberation, there was no need to read the representation out at the hearing.

Ms Stephanie Bruce-Smith Police Responsible Authority legal representative outlined the application for review and made the following key points:

In the view of the Police the Licencing objective, the prevention of crime and disorder was not being upheld by the licence holder because of persistent breaching of the licence conditions and in particular of the licence itself. This included selling of alcohol outside of the permitted hours and persistent failure to comply with CCTV conditions.

There had been an incident at the premises of a staff member wielding a knife which added to the concerns, this was set out in the Police witness statement.

There was a previous licence for this premises, which was revoked on 11^th June 2019, at that time evidence presented to the Panel was that the premises was selling alcohol outside of the permitted hours and to underage people. There were numerous breaches of those licence conditions going back to 2016, the then Licence holder and Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

There was none.

Having adjourned between 11.30am to 11.35am, 12.20am to12.2am and 12.49am to 1255am the meeting ended at 13.11pm

Should the Panel wish to go into closed session, it will take the following resolution:

THAT the press and public be excluded from the proceedings of the Licensing Panel on 5^th October 2023 during consideration of the respective item on the agenda on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, that were members of the public to be present, there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Specifically -

Publicity in respect of item x would be likely to lead to the disclosure of information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings by virtue of Category 5 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).