Agenda and minutes

The Chair will open the meeting and welcome all present.

The Chair opened the Hearing and introduced the Members of the Sub-Committee and Officers present.  At the request of the Chair all other parties present gave a brief introduction.

To receive apologies for absence and the details of any Councillor nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member listed.

No apologies for absence were received.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider an application for a variation to a Premises Licence made by Morrisons Superstore, Clearwell Road, Redditch, Worcestershire, B98 0SW.

(Report attached)

The Sub-Committee was asked to consider an application for a variation to a premises licence made by Morrisons Superstore, Clearwell Road, Redditch, Worcestershire, B98 0SW. The application having been submitted in order to apply for the following variations to their existing licence as follows:-

·         To extend the permitted hours for sale of alcohol Monday to Sunday 06:00 hours – 24:00 hours.

The application was subject to a Hearing in light of a representation received from a member of the public objecting to the grant of the variation on the grounds of Public Nuisance.  The representations related primarily to:-

·         An increase in noise nuisance from people congregating in their vehicles, playing loud music, engines revving, squealing of tyres and extreme driving around the customer car park.

·         An increase in noise nuisance from commercial vehicles and refrigeration units that are parked overnight in the customer car park.

·         A potential increase in anti-social behaviour, fuelled by alcohol.

The Technical Officer (Licensing), Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) introduced the report and, in doing so, informed the Sub-Committee that, as detailed in the report, no representations had been received from any of the Responsible Authorities.

At the invitation of the Chair, Ms Clare Johnson of Gosschalks Solicitors, the applicant’s representative, spoke in support of the variation and informed the Sub-Committee that Morrisons operated 500 premises in the United Kingdom, in city centres, towns and cumulative impact areas.  Morrisons had never had a premises licence called in for review at any of their 500 premises, as Morrisons was a hugely experienced business. 

Morrisons had applied for around 360 variations to extend permitted hours for the sale of alcohol, Monday to Sunday 06:00 hours – 24:00 hours.  The additional hours requested had included Sunday, with a view, that, should Sunday trading hours be changed, Morrisons would not have to apply for any further variations.

Ms Johnson highlighted that, as stated earlier by the Technical Officer (Licensing), WRS, no representations had been received from any of the Responsible Authorities, which included the police and Environmental Health in respect of noise nuisance; and that no representations had been received from the local Ward Councillors.  Only one representation had been received, from Mr Gibson, a local resident.

Ms Johnson informed the Sub-Committee that the representation received from Mr Gibson referred to the operation of the store not dealing with noise issues arising from the use of the car park, and that there were no relevant issues raised by Mr Gibson with regard to the sale of alcohol at the premises.  Therefore, in her opinion, his representation was not a valid representation as it did not relate to matters involving the sale of alcohol / the licensing objectives.

Ms Johnson further informed Members that she had spoken with the Store Manager, who had informed her that no complaints had been received at the store in the eighteen months he had managed the store.  She would therefore ask Mr Gibson for further evidence of the issues he had raised in his representation.  She  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.