Agenda and minutes

To elect a Councillor from the Sub-Committee to act as Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Roger Bennett was elected to be the Chair for the meeting.

The Chair opened the Hearing and introduced the Members of the Sub-Committee and Officers present.  The Chair welcome Mr Matt Whitman representative of Astwood Infrastructure to the meeting.

There were no apologies for absence.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

The Sub-Committee were asked to consider an application for a Premises Licence in respect of premises at Unit 6, Colemeadow Road, North Moons Moat Redditch, B98 9PB.

The application had been made by Mr Bert Roelants of Astwood Infrastructure Limited, the occupiers of the site. 

The application had been referred for a hearing before the Sub-Committee in light of a representation made by Mr Keith Beng on behalf of Raicam Clutch Limited who operated a business from premises at Unit 8 Colemeadow Road North Moons Moat Redditch B98 9PB.  Members were asked to note that although the representation had been made neither Mr Keith Beng nor any representative on his behalf was in attendance for the hearing.

It was explained to the Members that the applicant Mr Bert Roelants had not been available to attend the hearing.  In his place Astwood Infrastructure were represented by Mr Matt Whitman, Project Delivery Manager.

The Licensing Technical Officer, Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) introduced the report and in doing so explained that the premises consisted of an industrial unit located in the North Moons Moat industrial estate.  It was intended that the trading area be limited to a brewery tap room area and a bottle shop room located at the front of the building.

Members were referred to the licensable activities and hours of operation for which the Applicant was seeking a licence, listed at paragraph 2.4 on page 2 of the agenda and set out below:-

It was noted that no representations had been made from any of the Responsible Authorities.

Members were referred to the representation made by Mr Beng from Raicam Clutch Limited on page 27 of the agenda.  The representation commented on concerns with regard to noise from music being played aT Unit 6 and the potential for the licensable activities, if permitted, to cause problems with litter.  The Licensing Officer Technical explained that the comments regarding parking were not relevant as they fell outside of any of the Licensing Objectives.

At the invitation of the Chair, Mr Matt Whitman on behalf of the applicant addressed the Sub-Committee in support of the application.

By way of background Mr Whitman explained that the premises at Unit 6 were used by Astwood Infrastruture for research and development into vertical farming using green energy methods.  This involved multi-level growing of vegetables such as salad crops under artificial conditions.  The system developed had produced surplus heat as a by-product.  The company had therefore developed a brewing process that would be able to use the heat/hot water in the brewery tanks.  It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

“That, under S.100 (A) (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following matter(s) on the grounds that it/they involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the relevant paragraphs (to be specified) of Part 1 of Schedule 12 (A) of the said Act”.

These paragraphs are as follows:

Subject to the “public interest” test, information relating to:

·         Para 1 – any individual;

·         Para 2 – the identity of any individual;

·         Para 3 – financial or business affairs;

·         Para 4 – labour relations matters;

·         Para 5 – legal professional privilege;

·         Para 6 –  a notice, order or direction;

·         Para 7 – the prevention, investigation or

                     prosecution of crime;

 and may need to be considered as ‘exempt’.