Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, BN17 5LF. View directions

Contact: Carrie O'Connor,  Email: committee@arun.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN

Minutes:

            Prior to commencement of the meeting it had been agreed that Councillor Cooper would chair the meeting.

2.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members and Officers are reminded to make any declarations of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the item or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

 

Members and officers should make their declaration by stating :

 

a) the item they have the interest in

b) whether it is a pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial

c) the nature of the interest

Minutes:

            There were no declarations of interest made.

3.

APPLICATION FOR A REVIEW OF A PREMISES LICENCE, THE UNICORN, 76 HIGH STREET, BOGNOR REGIS pdf icon PDF 111 KB

This report asks Members to consider the matter of an application for the review of a premises licence for The Unicorn, 76 High Street, Bognor Regis.

 

Please note this matter had previously been scheduled to be considered on 8 March 2019 but had been deferred at the request of the Premises Licence Holder.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

          Prior to commencement of consideration of this item, the Chairman requested those in attendance to introduce themselves and stated that a verbatim note of the meeting would not be taken and should anyone wish anything particular to be noted they should indicate accordingly to enable this to be done.

 

          The Chairman also asked if any further information had been provided to enable the matter to be dispensed with.  The Licensing Officer advised that lengthy video footage had been submitted by the applicant as evidence to collaborate that nuisance and anti social behaviour had been caused by patrons of The Unicorn.  Following discussion held between the applicant and the legal representative of the PLH prior to the hearing, confirmation was sought from all parties that the watching of that footage could be dispensed with providing it was accepted that it did indeed collaborate that some of the nuisance did come from customers of The Unicorn but that there was also an element which came from the migration of people through the town centre late at night.  It was agreed that the video footage would not be shown.

 

          In line with the Council’s laid down procedure, detailed representations were heard from those relevant parties in attendance, followed by comprehensive questions between all parties, which were responded to at the meeting, a summary of which is set out below:-

 

          The applicant for the review, Mrs Moore, presented her case and advised the hearing that she had been subjected to constant late night disturbance up until December 2018 and could not take any more.  She did not want to see the premises closed but felt that steps must to taken to address the issues she had raised in her submission relating to noise nuisance caused by music and noise from customers inside the premises; public order issues relating to persons leaving the premises; and staff not taking control or management of customers’ behaviour.

 

          The Licensing Authority and the Police also gave detailed presentations around the reasons why the Licencing Objectives of Crime & Disorder, Prevention of Public Nuisance and Public Safety were being undermined.

 

          In presenting the case for the Premises Licence Holder, Mr Craig (Legal Representative) commended all parties for the fair, proportionate and stepped approach that had been taken in trying to resolve this matter.  It was acknowledged that dispersal of patrons and smoking areas needed to be addressed and that the Designated Premises Supervisor had to be a responsible person who would not obstruct the officers of the Licensing Team and the Police.  An offer was made to remove off sales from the licence to mitigate the concerns about people drinking outside the premises and that a dispersals policy would be made available for inspection when required.

 

          In the course of discussion on the management of a dispersal policy, the Chairman called a short adjournment to the proceedings to enable some discussion to be undertaken between the relevant parties on this matter as it was felt to be a critical aspect in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.