Agenda item

The Chair opened the hearing and welcomed everyone to the hearing, Members and Officers presented themselves to all those in attendance.

The Chair welcomed Ms Purewal, Head of Licensing for Tescos and Mr Watson the store manager for the new store.

At the invitation of the Chair, the Technical Officer (Licensing), Worcestershire Regulatory Services, presented the report and detailed that, On 15 August 2025 an application was received from Tesco Stores Limited for grant of a premises licence in respect of

Tesco Express

135 Birchfield Road

Redditch

Worcestershire

B97 4LE

The application contained all the requisite documentation including the fee and a plan of the premises. It was further confirmed that the application had been advertised in accordance with the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003 and associated regulations and that the application had been served on all responsible authorities.

The licencing Officer clarified that the application was split into two parts. The sale of alcohol from 6:00 hours to 24:00 hours and the sale of refreshments from 23:00 hours to 24:00 hours, the sale of hot drinks and refreshments was not regulated before 23:00 hours.

The Chair noted the absence of the Objectors and that the representatives were detailed on pages 29 to 31 of the Public Reports pack, the Chair further stated that no less weight would be given to their concerns in their absence

At the invitation of the Chair, Ms Purewal, Licencing Officer for Tesco Ltd addressed the Committee.

Ms Purewal detailed that Tasco was a national food chain with over 3000 stores and that the new unit would be of their “Extra” store format designed as a convenience store for the local community.

The store was expected to employ approximately 20 staff with 3 duty managers and the new store manager, Mr Watson, was present at the hearing to answer any questions. Mr Watson had 18 years’ experience with Tesco and had worked for 9 years as a store manager, his most recent employment being in a similarly sized store within Redditch.

Ms Purewal stated that Tesco had a number of procedures to ensure its adherence to the licencing objectives and that staff had to undertake a number of mandatory training courses to keep their knowledge current, this included Think 25 training twice a year and Training to spot drunken and proxy sales.

The checkout system automatically included checks and prompts to assist cashiers with age restricted purchases which included inputting an age onto the till to verify. Additionally, employees were empowered to make the right decision, and a colleague would not be overruled by a manager when asking for ID.

Staff would be equipped with body cams and headsets to aid in communication and safety. There would also be a tagging system in place and panic alarms.

Ms Purewal stated that they were not aware of any restriction or discussion which impacted the opening times as was stated by the objectors. However, the Legal Advisor to the Committee commented that the planning application Conditioned that Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) would not operate outside of the hours of 08:00 to 22:00 hours which was the possible source of the misunderstanding. Ms Purewal further stated that although the application was for the sale of alcohol between 06:00 to 24:00 Hours, it would be determined if those times would be reduced based on late night trade after the store had opened.

Ms Purewal asked Members to give appropriate weight to the lack of any representations from responsible authorities, which included WRS for noise and the police for crime and public nuisance.

After questions from Members the new store manager Mr Watson stated that he ran a small store in Blatchley which was of an equivalent size. He believed that he had a good relationship with the local Community Support Officers who were in regular contact to keep the community safe and to identify any problematic individuals. He further stated that he has had to ban a number of individuals so was prepared to do so if the need arose. He did not feel that the new store would be much different from his current position, and he would endeavour to maintain a good working relationship with the local Police Officers and the wider community.

The Chair clarified that the decision would be made by Members in closed deliberation and that all parties to the proceeding would be informed at the same time via a written decision notice distributed via Officers.