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

The Hearing Panel considered a report of 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.

Greater Manchester Police addressed the Hearing Panel, stating that a serious incident had occurred causing injury to staff and customers. The Interim Steps hearing concluded that conditions regarding CCTV and S.I.A. door staff should be added until this full Summary Review hearing. Having assessed these conditions since the first hearing, GMP were satisfied that they were proportionate and reasonable and noted that the CCTV condition may need amending to specify staff in job roles that would maintain this. In brief, the Standard Conditions should be added for the CCTV condition and the S.I.A. door staff condition should be retained.

In response to questions from the premises’ appointed legal representative and Chair of the Hearing Panel, GMP stated that:

• GMP did not have a history of visits to or complaints about the club
• There new have been new officers attending to the incident who did not know the location of the club
• There were other licensed establishment nearby selling alcohol into the evening
• Some of these had historically been known to GMP but this had vastly improved over recent years
• GMP did not know if any of the other, nearby establishments employed door staff
• There were other social/working men’s clubs in the area, but not nightclubs
• A door person would have had a positive influence over the incident and it was GMP’s belief that there would have been none or less injuries sustained to victims
• The licence was granted before the Licensing Act 2003 therefore the CCTV conditions were scant
• GMP felt that this should be updated to comply with the Model Conditions and this would assist to cover staff changes relating to the availability of CCTV footage for responsible authorities

Colette Renton, Counsel for The Winston Conservative Club addressed the Hearing Panel and stated that there was a more up to date licence with sufficient CCTV conditions on at annex 2 which had been omitted somehow during a DPS variation. The premises had no issue with GMP’s requests around CCTV and stated that they were already complying with the proposed conditions. Ms Renton referred to the second supplementary agenda which contained photographs on the interior rooms and expressed that this was a quiet members club which had unfortunately suffered a one-off incident. The issues began when a group of males damaged the gents toilets and were made to leave. Once outside, this group started a violent affray which moved down the road away from the club. The CCTV had not captured the incident as it was out of reach. Moving onto the other request in GMP’s submission, Ms Renton said that the request for S.I.A. door staff for any event booked for 40 or more was prohibitively expensive and, since this decision was approved for the interim period,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

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

The Hearing Panel considered a report of 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.

Greater Manchester Police addressed the Hearing Panel and requested for the hearing to be conducted in private due to the nature of ongoing investigations.

The Hearing Panel adjourned to make a decision on the request from GMP and determined that it was necessary to assist GMP proceedings to keep the public from having access to sensitive information that would be presented at the hearing and be an impediment to GMP’s investigations.

GMP addressed the Hearing Panel and stated that Mr M Iqbal became the DPS on 22 August 2017 who was in attendance today with his brother and business partner Mr S Iqbal. GMP referred back to visits made by Trading Standards and GMP officers and referred the Hearing Panel to the chronology of events within their report in the private pack of the agenda.

Questions were raised by GMP and the Hearing Panel and answered my both brothers as per the hearing procedure.

Trading Standards addressed the Hearing Panel with their concerns over the running of the business, noting that their visits had begun due to concerns back in 2020.

The Trading Standards officer confirmed that they had been in attendance on the most recent visit.

Mr S and Mr M Iqbal addressed the Hearing Panel to make representations.

GMP stated that they were unable to ask questions of the business partners as this would constitute a non-PACE interview.

Mr S and Mr M Iqbal answered questions put to them by Trading Standards and the Hearing Panel as per the hearing procedure.

Mr S and Mr M Iqbal summed up their case, stating that they were aware of the mistakes they had made, that they would not be repeated and that the business had taken a downturn since the interim steps hearing when the licence was removed.

Trading Standards summed up by stating that some of the issues encountered at the premises had been repeated for years.

GMP summed up by stating that the premises were not upholding the licensing objectives, that the responsible authorities were not in place to spoonfeed premises on how to run their businesses and noted the criminal elements of the concerns associated with the premises.

In their deliberations, the Hearing Panel considered all the evidence and discussions before them and determined that there had been very concerning criminal elements associated with the premises.

Decision

Revoke the premises licence.

Review of Interim Steps

The PLH stated that the suspension had placed a strain on the business and expressed the view that the suspension was harsh and should be lifted.

GMP requested that the Committee maintain the suspension given the criminality that had been observed at the premises, stating that it was an appropriate step to take to promote the licensing objectives.

The Hearing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.