Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Licensing Sub Committee Hearing Panel - Friday, 28th December, 2018 10.00 am

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

Contact: Beth Morgan 

Items
No. Item

190.

Application for a Review of a Premises Licence for Factory 251, 118-120 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 7EN. pdf icon PDF 341 KB

The report of the Head of Planning, Building Control and Licencing is now attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel was provided with the circumstances of the incident leading to the summary review by a statement from the representative of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in attendance. The incident took place on 2 December 2018 and related to the actions of door security staff at the venue who had attacked two customers who had been removed from the premises by the door staff. The Panel viewed footage of the incident taken by a member of the public using a mobile phone, who was present at the time. The Panel was informed that 30 other incidents had also taken place at the premises over a period of 12 months. Of these eight had been reported to the GMP by the venue and the Greater Manchester Ambulance Service.

 

The Panel considered that the violent incident on 2 December 2018 was extremely serious and was of the view that it had been the correct course of action to suspend the licence at a hearing held on 5 December 2018. The Panel also wanted to make it clear that whilst this incident was the result of actions of door staff provided through a private contractor, the ultimate responsibility for those door staff lay with the Premises Licence Holder (PLH). Sufficient procedures were clearly not in place to adequately supervise door staff on the night of the incident.

 

The Panel was advised by GMP that the premises licence owners had used the period of suspension (starting on 5 December 2018) to work with GMP and had carried out a full review of their licence and operating procedures. The premises licence owners had engaged the services of an independent licensing consultant who previously worked for GMP as an inspector.

 

It was very concerning to the Panel that there had been a number of previous assaults at the premises and that the premises had been in the Top Ten in ranking for harm incidents on a number of occasions during 2017 and 2018. GMP however, advised that there had been a significant improvement in the premises ranking in the last year following a meeting that took place with GMP approximately a year ago.

 

The Panel accepted GMP comments that this showed that when issues are raised the premises will take action as on the previous occasion when concerns were raised, improvements were made which then saw a significant decrease in incidents occurring at the premises, at the start of 2018 and an overall improvement in their rating from red to amber.

 

The Panel was also informed by GMP that whilst there was originally concerns over the under reporting of incidents at the premises to the police in some instances, the PLH may have not been aware of them if they were only minor incidents reported later by customers. Also, in some instances the PLH appeared to have believed that the police would have been alerted if an ambulance was called or Nitenet informed of an incident. Whilst it is concerning that the PLH was not fully  ...  view the full minutes text for item 190.