Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director Supporting Communities

 

This is an application to vary a premises licence under section 34 of the Licensing Act 2003.

Consideration was given to a report of the Executive Director, Supporting Communities detailing an application to vary a premises licence under Section 34 of the Licensing Act 2003. 

 

Paru Bhudia, Licensing Officer, summarised the report. It was confirmed that Appendix 5 (page 88 of the agenda) listed the Licensing Authority’s requested conditions.    The Applicant had agreed to accept conditions 2, 3, 6, and 7.

 

The Panel agreed to admit the late papers included within the supplementary agenda and the circulated document from the parties. Panel Members were satisfied that all parties had an opportunity to read the papers and they were relevant to the hearing.

 

Gav Strang, Applicant and DPS and general manager of the premises, confirmed that if Members were not minded to grant the extended hours as applied for he would be willing to reduce the hours to the following: 11.00am – midnight Monday to Thursday, 11.00am – 1.00am Friday and Saturday, 11.00am – 12.30am Sunday. The Licensing Officer confirmed that the premises had been previously licensed for those hours in 2018.

 

PC Rachel Aldis, Police responsible authority, summarised their representation included within the main agenda (pages 85 – 87) and the additional document circulated which included their proposed conditions. The main points raised in the representation included:

·       The Applicant failed to respond to emails regarding scheduling a meeting, which the Applicant requested, to discuss the application, therefore mediation was not possible before the hearing.

·       The premises was located within a close vicinity to a large number of residential properties and the extension of hours would increase noise disturbance.

·       The extension of hours would attract people who wanted to drink late at night and would increase alcohol-related crime and disorder.

 

In response to questions, PC Rachel Aldis confirmed the following points:

·       If the Panel were minded to grant the application, the Police urged the Panel to agree only up to framework hours and not the applied for hours.

·       As detailed in the agenda, it was confirmed that the crime figures showed that in the last 6 months (9 February – 9 August 2024) 12 calls to the Police or crime investigations had occurred at or were linked to the premises. The reports/calls to Police include assaults, theft, suspicious circumstances and a number of burglaries. Further information about the crimes could not be discussed because the crime reports had not been submitted. PC Rachel Aldis stated that this level of crime reporting was consistent with a late night venue closing at 2.00-3.00am and, therefore was higher than the expected level.

·       The Applicant stated that some of the crimes linked to the premises would have resulted from staff members helping victims of crime and not connected to late closing hours. PC Rachel Aldis confirmed that three to four of the reports were burglaries that took place at the premises, where there had been a victim of a burglary, and the remaining eight were crimes were of criminal damage, theft or calls to the police asking for assistance.

 

Esther Jones, Licensing Authority responsible authority, summarised their representation included within the main agenda (pages 81 – 84) and made the following correction to her submission: the venue had applied for three Temporary Event Notices (TENs) in 2024. The main points raised in the representation was that the Applicant had not contacted the Licensing Authority to discuss their representation and that the premises was located in a mixed development and the application did not include conditions or measures to respond to the proposed increased hours, footfall, waste and refuse, and noise disturbance to residents.

 

In response to questions, Esther Jones confirmed the following points:

·       The Licensing Authority was not aware of any problems taking place at the premises during the three TENs or when the premises operated under the 2018 licensed hours.

·       The residential properties were close to the venue, situated in a mixed development area, however specific measurements could not be provided.

 

Gav Strang, Applicant, presented the application and the following points were made:

·        he wanted to address the Panel to show his character as a DPS and general manager of the premises and his aim to provide a community pub. He stated the pub was not looking to become a late-night venue in the traditional sense and that customers were typically older, seeking a quieter atmosphere for conversation. Often at a later point in the evening, there were usually about 5-15 customers and the staff would suggest alternate venues for them to go to when they closed.  The extension of hours was intended to give customers more time to enjoy the ambiance and community spirit.

 

In response to questions, Gav Strang confirmed the following points:

·       The Panel asked how the venue would address the Police concern that if given later hours people from other venues would arrive for late night drinking. In response, Gav Strang stated that when the venue previously operated later hours, the premises would only advertise times that were less than the actual the licensed hours, which gave them the opportunity to easily turn people away.

·       The Panel asked how the premises would manage an increase in noise generated from drunk people late at night affecting local residents. Gav Strang responded that he lived above the venue and he himself did not like background noise. When customers left the premises, as a matter of course, the policy was to disperse people so they were not staying outside of the venue. Before closing, the outside tables were flipped so people could not sit down or use them. The premises was in the process of revamping the rear smoking area so people did not need to smoke outside of the front the venue. Through these policies the venue could demonstrate they were trying to be as responsible as possible towards their neighbours. It was additionally stated that the clientele of the pub were not the sort of people to be a cause of loud noise disturbance.

·       It was confirmed by Gav Strang that in his view the venue did not require door security provision and they were not a problematic venue. He confirmed that security was also not required because he lived upstairs and was available 24 hours a day if needed. Additionally, pub staff would turn people away if they were considered not a desirable customer. In response to Members stating that because nightclub hours were being applied for the Police had asked for CCTV and security conditions, Gav Strang stated that the additional costs associated with security would mean the venue would have to start allowing customers that were not desirable into the premises in order to cover costs. He stated that he had previous experience of working at a late night venue in Enfield which successfully followed similar security conditions as he proposed and he did not want this pub to end up turning into a late night venue. Panel Members noted that the pub was on a busy road and would attract a different type of customer late at night and the pub had a duty of care to their customers. Gav Strang stated that the pub had a unique selling point of being a happy atmosphere and an old-fashioned local pub for local people and was somewhere safe for their customers.

·       In response to Panel Members asking if the pub used door security when they operated their previous longer hours, Gav Strang stated they did not and the pub did not attract people from other venues. When operating those longer hours, the actual closing time was not advertised but were shown to be earlier to customers. This arrangement gave the premises flexibility and the ability to host lock-ins for regulars.

·       Gav Strang confirmed that he was happy to accept the women’s safety principles condition and he had not been aware that the pub needed to be part of a formal system. The venue already prided itself on being inclusive, displaying a pride flag in an Irish pub, and were described as a safe place by customers.

 

In their closing remarks, the PC Rachel Aldis highlighted the Police’s concerns of the premises becoming a late night 2.00am closing venue. It was evidenced that venues that stayed open that late would cause a negative impact on crime and disorder which resulted in negatively affecting residents. The current licence did not have suitable conditions to mitigate the risks of a late-night venue.  The Police requested the Panel to reject the application to vary the licence entirely, however if the Panel were mined to grant the application, the proposed Police conditions should be added to the licence. 

 

In their closing remarks, Gav Strang stated that stipulations provided by the Police were received too late for his team to provide a response. The supplementary agenda responded in full to the objections raised against the application. Gav Strang asked the Panel when making their decision to consider the outlook and character of the community-led pub which looked out for its customers. The premises was asking for longer trading hours on an existing licence, and would be willing to reduce the applied for hours to those that it was previously trading under in 2018 as discussed during the hearing.

 

Decision and Reasons

 

In their deliberations, Panel Members confirmed that they had been able to see and hear the submissions made by the parties. They stated that they had considered the submissions made by the  Responsible  Authorities and the Applicant. Their decision needed to consider the pub’s ability to promote the licensing objectives if granted the extension hours and what conditions should be attached if any. In considering this, the Panel considered the individual character of the pub and the fact that it was an established pub in the community and were satisfied that the Applicant had made a good case to demonstrate that some of the assumptions of risk to the licensing objectives did not fully apply to this pub because it was a well-run quieter venue.

 

Panel Members acknowledged positive aspects of the Applicant’s case, including the absence of representations from local residents; that the venue had operated three successful TENs in 2024 without any issues; and had previously operated to later hours under a previous premises licence and that the venue was willing to adopt the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme.

 

Panel Members stated that were not willing to grant the late hours as applied for, having considered the responsible authorities submissions, however they would be willing to grant the hours the venue previously operated under  which were offered by the Applicant at the start of  the hearing. Panel Members also agreed that live music should end 30 minutes before the final sale of alcohol and in response to the concerns raised by the Responsible Authorities, to add the Licensing Authority’s proposed conditions 2-7 and the Police proposed conditions 1, 4 and 5.

 

Panel Members considered that to grant the licence variation with the reduced hours and additional conditions would promote the crime and disorder and prevention of public nuisance licensing objectives.

 

RESOLVED –

 

(i)      THAT the hours of operation be extended to:

 

a)    Supply of Alcohol (For consumption on and off the premises)

11.00am – midnight Monday to Thursday

11.00am – 1.00am Friday and Saturday

11.00am – 12.30am Sunday

 

b)    Live Music

11.00am – 11.30pm Monday to Thursday

11.00am – 12.30am Friday and Saturday

11.00am – midnight Sunday

 

c)    Recorded Music

11.00am – midnight Monday to Thursday

11.00am – 1.00am Friday and Saturday

11.00am – 12.30am Sunday

 

d)    Late night refreshment

11.00am – midnight Monday to Thursday

11.00am – 1.00am Friday and Saturday

11.00am – 12.30am Sunday

 

e)    Opening hours

11.00am – midnight Monday to Thursday

11.00am – 1.00am Friday and Saturday

11.00am – 12.30am Sunday

 

 

(ii)    THAT the existing condition 37 be amended to read:

 

An incident log shall be kept at the premises and/or the information to which this condition relates, in a suitable software system designed for this purpose, that is held in the cloud.

 

(iii)   THAT the following conditions be added to the licence:

 

Licensing Authority conditions agreed by Licensing Panel A

 

1.    The premises shall liaise with the licensing service to ensure that staff members are trained in WAVE.  This is be done within a week of the licence being granted, to ensure that their staff are trained to support women and vulnerable people borough.  They can email licensing@camden.gov.uk for further details.

 

2.          Working with the council’s Pollution team, produce a noise management plan to ensure that noise from the live music being actively advertised and produced within the premises is not a source of disturbance to occupiers of neighbouring residential premises especially in the early hours of the morning.

 

3.          Ensure that bottle clearing, cleaning and tidying up activities are not carried out at times when it is likely to cause disturbance to residents in neighbouring premises.

 

4.          Provide suitable and sufficient refuse receptacles to contain all waste and refuse generated by the business such that there is no overflowing of refuse or smell emanating from the refuse.

 

5.          Provide signs at exits to the premises requesting their guests to leave the premises quietly and for the duty manage to ensure this.

 

6.          Ensure the contact details for the duty manager is available to bar staff so that residents who require his attention could contact him easily.

 

Police conditions agreed by Licensing Panel A

 

7.          CCTV will cover all areas where licensable activities take place.

 

8.          There shall be no admittance or re-admittance one hour before the end of licensable activities – Friday and Saturday only

 

9.          The sale of alcohol for off sales will cease at midnight each day.

 

Additional condition agreed by Licensing Panel A

 

10.      The premises shall sign up for the “Ask for Angela” or similar scheme to promote women’s safety and staff to undertake Welfare and Vulnerability Engagement training.

 

 

ACTION BY: Executive Director, Supporting Communities