No apologies of absence were received. 

Cllr Hayre declared an interest as he is a License Holder.

The Licensing Panel were asked to determine an application for an expedited review of Premises Licence granted under the Licensing Act 2003 in respect of the premises known as The King’s Head, King Street, Gravesend, DA12 2EB.

On 13 October 2021, the council received an application from Kent Police for an expedited review of the premises licence in respect of Kings Head, King Street, Gravesend, Kent DA12 2EB as they considered it necessary to take interim steps pending determination of the review of the premises licence.

The Senior Licensing Officer introduced the report and explained that a decision was made not to invite the Police or the Premises License Holder to this hearing.

The Licensing Act 2003 (the 2003 Act) required the Council (as licensing authority) to carry out its various functions to promote the following four licensing objectives:

·         The prevention of crime and disorder

·         The protection of public safety

·         The prevention of public nuisance

·         The protection of children from harm

A full hearing to be heard within 28 days of the date that the application was served.

The Senior Licensing Officer showed the CCTV evidence from the early hours of Saturday 2 October 2021of the incident.     

Member addressed questions to the Senior Licensing Officer:

·         Although discussed in the report, there was no additional CCTV footage of the incident from inside the premises. 

·         A SIA license must be visible at all times.

·         It was confirmed that two door supervisors to be present on Friday and Saturday evening from 21:00hrs until the premises closed. A further two to be present from 22:00hrs until the premises close.

·         The conditions of the current licence were discussed.

Following questions and a summary from the Senior Licensing Officer, the Panel adjourned to consider its decision.

Determination

The Chair advised that, in coming to their decision, the Panel considered all the evidence presented by the Police report, the CCTV evidence and the Licence breaches including: using unlicensed door supervisors, not having the required numbers of door supervisors and refusing to provide CCTV to the police. Therefore, the Licence holder has failed to up hold three of the Licensing objectives namely the prevention of crime and disorder, the protection of public safety and the prevention of public nuisance.  The Panel believed that in the light of the breaches there was a continuing risk to public safety if the premises continued to operate.

Having considered all those matters and advice given, the Panel suspended the Premise Licence with immediate effect lasting until a Licensing Panel Hearing to review the Premises Licence is called within 28 days.