Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Licensing Sub Committee Hearing Panel - Monday, 24th April, 2023 10.00 am

Venue: Council Antechamber, Level 2, Town Hall Extension. View directions

Contact: Ian Smith 

Items
No. Item

21.

Application for a New Premises Licence - Admas Café, 317 Great Western Street, Manchester, M14 4BZ pdf icon PDF 115 KB

The report of the Director of Planning, Building Control and Licensing is enclosed.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Hearing Panel considered a report from the Directorof Planning, Building Control and Licensing. The Hearing Panel also considered the written papers of the parties submitted and the oral representations of the parties who attended as well as the relevant legislation.

 

The agent acting on behalf of the applicant addressed the Hearing Panel and stated that this was a request for a new premises licence for a food led café style premises. Admas Café was an East African community hub for the locality on a parade of shops. A set of recent photographs of the café and surroundings were distributed and showed the new shop front and blue signage notifications of this application. The premises were seeking to include alcohol sales to their offering for the hours of 11:00 until 22:00 with a closing time of 22:30. Conditions had been proposed by the applicant and were included in the printed report and these sought to address any potential issues in the area and also to address the concerns of the Licensing and Out Of Hours Team (LOOH).

 

The Hearing Panel asked the agent if the next door café had an alcohol licence and the agent was not certain that they did and added that there was an off licence next door.

 

LOOH addressed the Hearing Panel and stated that they had assessed the likely impacts of granting an alcohol licence, which were concerning waste, criminal activity, drunkenness and the effect this would have on neighbouring properties would be detrimental to their amenity. LOOH noted that, whilst the premises was on a main road, neighbouring residential streets were merely yards away and gave mention of criminal activity in the area. The premises had submitted an application for an alcohol licence in March 2022 and LOOH had recommended a decision to refuse at this time also. 11 residents had objected to the application and this previous application was subsequently withdrawn. LOOH had been informed that the premises had been selling alcohol without a licence and staying open beyond their terminal hour, until 03:30 on one occasion. LOOH and GMP attended the premises to follow up on these claims and found males smoking shisha pipes and others clearly hiding bottles of alcohol under the table when the authorities entered the premises. This, LOOH considered, told of an organised response in case of any official visits. Cases of alcohol were uncovered in a cupboard on the premises and the DPS as cautioned by GMP. LOOH had serious concerns that this blasé attitude would persist at the premises with them staying open later than their licence allowed and causing noise and nuisance for local residents with further potential for associated criminal activity. LOOH concluded by requesting the Hearing Panel to consider the residential setting of this premises and refuse the application.

 

The agent asked LOOH if they had any supporting witness statements. LOOH stated that this was a joint operation with GMP who were there as back up incase of any disturbance and had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

22.

Application for a Premises Licence Variation - MRH Fallowfield, Fallowfield Service Station, 377-385 Wilmslow Road, Manchester, M14 6AH pdf icon PDF 150 KB

Now contains information from the applicant.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Hearing Panel considered a report from the Head of Planning, Building Control and Licensing.  The Hearing Panel also considered the written papers of the parties submitted and the oral representations of the parties who attended as well as the relevant legislation.

 

Sarah Clover, the barrister for the applicant addressed the Hearing Panel and stated that this was an application for an alcohol licence at a fuel garage, that the garage had a licence previously but this was rescinded due to religious reasons in 2015. The barrister stated that the Cumulative Impact Policy (CIP) was not currently in effect and added that the applicants attended a public licensing hearing for a recent application in the former CIP zone which was granted by the Hearing Panel. The barrister stated that the applicant had worked with GMP (who had not submitted any representations) and LOOH who had now withdrawn objections made in January. The MRH group had 859 sites across the UK and some with 24 hour alcohol licences. Two members of the team were in attendance today, Mr Mahon – Head of Range and Space and Ms Walker – Area Manager for this region. Many garages had alcohol licence and there were high expectations for them. MRH ran other nearby garages with licences, some of which had objections against the applications but no complaints since they had been granted. A licensing consultant, Mr Rushton, had been employed to pick up on local evidence ahead of the application. He had also made other observations on other premises so was experienced in his field. The applicants wished to run the premises with control over their licence and have decent operators. They had made note of typical street drinking brands and Mr Rushton had made comments on these and where they were available. The barrister stated that she was aware of the area and concerns of residents but implied that there were other main contributors adding to these negative impacts. It was not useful to leave these premises unchallenged and stop experienced operators from being able to trade. The applicants had a strong process of area managers making sure premises were run correctly, not unsightly, making spot checks of refusal logs and CCTV. The application itself was requesting the sale of alcohol from 08:00 to 22:00 which was a lesser amount compared to other nearby premises. The reason for the request was that the premises attracts convenience customers looking for a top-up shop, getting fuel and then wishing to purchase food and drink in one place. The premises could lose out on this if alcohol was not available and these shoppers would be likely to go elsewhere. Additionally, in a post-COVID world businesses should be encouraged as this will assist with employment. In terms of the potential for encouraging student pre and post loading drinking habits, granting this licence at the garage would be unlikely to attract this demographic as the price point is high and would not stock a great deal of their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.