No apologies for absence were received.

No declarations of interest were made.

The Licensing Panel were asked to consider an application for a new premises licence for Northfleet Store, 6 Stonebridge Road, Northfleet, DA11 9DR.

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 application was for the sale by retail of alcohol, applied as follows:

Daily Off sales only

• 06:00am to 23:00pm

During the 28 day consultation period, representations were received from Environmental Protection, two members of the public and two Ward Councillors; the applicant had also agreed additional conditions with Licensing and Kent Police. The details of those representations and additional conditions could be found in Appendices B-F of the report.

The Licensing Agent was invited to address the Panel and summarised why the applicant should be granted the new premise licence, background information on the applicant and then addressed each objection which had been presented to the Panel in turn.

The Chair opened the Panel to allow questions from all parties present and reminded the Panel that the questions should only pertain to Licensing and not include statements.

Following Members and Ward Councillors questions, the below responses were received from the Licensing Agent and the Applicant:

• The premises would be run under the ‘Premier’ franchise as a mini supermarket; a large variety of products would be sold including everyday essentials; alcohol was a small part of the products that was intended to be sold
• The premises had a front and back entrance; deliveries to the shop could be made through the back entrance to the premises. Bookers Wholesale were responsible for deliveries and their timeframe on any given day was between the hours of 06:00am and 18:00pm. The premises had right of access for the alleyway behind the premises   
• There was a public car park within seventy metres of the premises; there was no customer parking available in front of the premises

The objectors, who had made representations, were invited to address the Panel and outline why the premises licence should be refused; representations speaking against the application were carried out in the following order:

·         Environmental Protection Team

·         Ward Councillor Jo Hart

·         Public Representation

The Senior Health Technician added that if the Panel were minded to approve the application, he would seek that the licensable hours were in line with the former premises  (Printer Shop) opening hours of 09:00am to 17:00pm Monday to Friday.

The Licensing Agent declined questioning any of the objectors.

The Chair allowed the Licensing Agent and the Senior Environmental Health Technician to sum up their arguments to the Panel.

The meeting adjourned at 10:41am to deliberate.

The meeting re-convened at 11:08am.

Determination  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.