Agenda and minutes

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Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Windmill Street, Gravesend DA12 1AU. View directions

Contact: Ben Clarke  Email: committee.section@gravesham.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

An apology for absence was received from Cllr John Caller; Cllr Leslie Pearton substituted

2.

To declare any interest Members may have in the applications being considered. When declaring an interest a Member must state what their interest is.

Minutes:

Cllr Steve Thompson declared a non-prejudicial interest as he worked with the partner of one of the objectors at the same charity however the partners objector was not in Cllr Thompsons line of management and thus, Cllr Thompson was able to continue as Chair of the meeting.

 

Cllr Steve Thompson declared an interest as he was a Ward Councillor for Central Ward which was adjacent to the ward that the premises resided in. Prior to the pandemic, Cllr Thompson led a Twitter campaign against a licensed premises opposite the Milton Convenience Store on behalf of local residents complaining of anti-social behaviour. The campaign resulted in a lot of press coverage and meetings with the Chief Executive and senior figures in Kent Police.

 

3.

Consideration of an application for a new premises licence for Milton Convenience Store, 29-30 Milton Road, Gravesend, Kent DA12 2RF pdf icon PDF 88 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Licensing Panel were asked to consider an application for a new premises licence for Milton Convenience Store, 29-30 Milton Road, Gravesend, Kent  DA12 2RF.

 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and went through the process he intended to follow. He explained that once everyone had made their submissions and all questions had been answered, the hearing would close to all parties except for the Panel, the legal advisor to the Panel and the Committee Services Officer (for minutes writing purposes only) for the panel to consider their decision.

 

The Licensing Officer gave a brief overview of the application and background information to the Panel. 

 

The applicants original application sought the following change to their licensable hours:

 

Sale by retail of alcohol

 

  • Monday to Sunday 00:00 to 00:00
  • Late Night Refreshment
  • Monday to Sunday 23:00 to 00:00

 

During the 28 day consultation period, representations were received from Environmental Health, Kent Police, Ward Councillors, the Gravesham Free & Safe Environment Co-ordinator and six public objections; the details of those representations could be found in Appendices 4-8 of the report.

 

On the 28th March 2022 Kent Police submitted an objection but after liaising with the Applicant’s Agent, they came to an agreement regarding the permitted licensing hours to sell alcohol and proposed licensing conditions and the Police withdrew their representation. Licensing required clarity on condition 8 and following discussions, the condition was amended in agreement with Kent Police and the Licensing Agent. A copy of Kent Polices original objection, their agreement to the proposed licensing conditions and the amended condition 8, could be found at Appendix 5.

 

The Applicants Agent addressed the Panel and summarised why the applicant should be granted the new premise licence and addressed each objection which had been presented to the Panel in turn.

 

The Chair opened the Panel to allow questions from Councillors; the below responses were received from the Applicants Agent: 

  • There were two CCTV cameras outside the premises
  • There was no evidence of any anti-social behaviour inside or outside the premises
  • It was agreed with the Police that sale of alcohol and late night refreshments would end at 02:00 hours, however the premises would still be able to remain open 24 hours for non-licensable activities if the applicant desired
  • The planning regulations did not require that a specific area of the premises floor plan be highlighted to show where the alcohol would be sold from
  • An additional member of staff would be employed alongside the three staff members as part of the normal staff rota
  • The applicant would not be amenable to the condition that all staff members must be personal licence holders due to the additional cost, onerous process of applying for licence for staff and the increase to being in breach of the licence if one of the staff members was not in the premises
  • The applicants partnership with Costcutter was for the provision and delivery of goods; being part of the Costcutter franchise meant that the applicant and his staff had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.