Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: The Council Chamber, Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, London, E14 2BG
Contact: Simmi Yesmin, Democratic Services Tel: 020 7364 4120, E-mail: simmi.yesmin@towerhamlets.gov.uk
No. | Item |
---|---|
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: There were no apologies for absence.
|
|
DECLARATIONS OF DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY INTEREST PDF 56 KB To note any declarations of interest made by Members, including those restricting Members from voting on the questions detailed in Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992. See attached note from the Monitoring Officer.
Minutes: There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest.
|
|
To note the rules of procedure which are attached for information. Minutes: The rules of procedure were noted.
|
|
UNRESTRICTED MINUTES PDF 79 KB To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the Licensing Sub-Committee held on 23rd July 2013.
Minutes:
The minutes of the Licensing Sub Committee meeting held on 23rd July 2013 were agreed and approved as a correct record.
|
|
ITEMS FOR CONSIDERATION |
|
Additional documents: Minutes: At the request of the Chair, Mr Mohshin Ali, Senior Licensing Officer, introduced the report which detailed the application for a new premises licence for Falcon News, 156 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6DG. It was noted that objections had been made by local residents.
Paul Greeno, Senior Advocate gave advice to Members and explained that the majority of the representations had been complaints based on the lack of enforcement in the area and allegations of conditions being breached at another premises owned by the applicants.
Mr Ali, stated that five test purchases had been undertaken at the premises that was mentioned by the objectors, four by Licensing Services and one by Trading Standards since August 2012 and all five had been negative which meant that the applicants had been compliant with their existing licensing conditions for their premises at 183 Bethnal Green Road.
At the request of the Chair, Ms Shaheen Ahmed, Applicant, gave a brief history of the premises, explaining that the premises had been open since 2006 as a newsagent, and that their customers were mainly local residents. She explained that the reason for the application was to cater for a new demand from customers who wanted to purchase alcohol with their daily confectionary and groceries etc. She noted the concerns raised in relation to her other premises at 183 Bethnal Green Road, however she stated that it had been managed by someone else who she had rented the premises out to but had recently taken over again. She further explained that it was a smaller shop then 152 Bethnal Green Road and she did not accept the allegations made about the 24hour sale of alcohol, and underage sales etc. it was noted that she would investigate into this matter and do the appropriate checks.
Ms Ahmed then highlighted the concerns of anti-social behaviour in the area and sympathised with the residents and expressed a willingness to work with the police and possibly reduce the hours applied for if this helped alleviate concerns. Ms Ahmed continued to talk about the issues in the area and mentioned the fact that Mr Kaan Gulcelik, Lead Objector, he himself owned the premises next door which also sold alcohol.
At the request of the chair, Ms Janet Fox, local resident stated that the premises maybe small but alleged still sold alcohol to those that were drunk and under the influence of drugs. She stated that there too many premises selling alcohol already and another one would cause more anti-social behaviour and public nuisance than what currently existed.
Members then heard from Mr Kaan Gulcelik, objector, who referred to his statement contained in the agenda and stated that the applicants sold to underage children, and sold outside their licensing hours causing violence and anti-social behaviour in the area.
In response to questions, Mr Ali reconfirmed that five test purchases had been undertaken at the premises on 183 Bethnal Green Road, four by Licensing Services and one ... view the full minutes text for item 5.1 |
|
Additional documents: Minutes: At the request of the Chair, Mr Mohshin Ali, Senior Licensing Officer, introduced the report which detailed the application for a new premises licence for First Floor, Ferry House, 26 Ferry Street, London E14 3DT. It was noted that objections had been made by local residents, Environmental Health, Freeholders and the Licensing Authority.
It was noted that further amendments had been made to the application and the Applicant had agreed to operate the Challenge 21 Policy, suggested by Trading Standards and a number of conditions set by the Police were also agreed.
Mr Greeno then advised Members that there was an existing premises licence for the ground floor, and that Members were here to only consider the premises licence application for the 1st Floor of the premises, and if Members were minded to grant the application then this would need to compliment the premises licence on the ground floor in order for enforceability.
At the request of the Chair, Mr Ben Allali, Applicant, explained that this premises had been a licensed venue for 300 years. He explained that he wanted a separate licence for the first floor in order to lease out a franchise to a restaurant to solely operate on the first floor. He explained that this would be run by new owners, new management, and new staff and would be independent from the pub on the ground floor. He explained that he had been operating the premises for 18 months and has had no problems. It was noted that alcohol would be served with food only and there would be no vertical drinking, as well as this he offered to limit the capacity of the premises to 64 people.
Mr Allali stated that he currently had French Tour Operators coming weekly with approximately 300 people at lunch times and was now looking to come in the evenings too. It was noted that the premises was covered by CCTV cameras as well as this there was a camera on the street facing the premises which would easily detect if there were any breaches of the licence.
He concluded that the premises, was surrounded by four other premises including restaurants and a pub providing regulated entertainment etc. Mr Allali stated that the hours applied for were within the council framework hours and that there were other venues which had multiple licenses whilst using the same entrance.
Members then heard form Mr Ian Wareing, Environmental Health who explained that having two licenses in the same building would cause problems. He then referred to the history of complaints detailed in his statement. He did mention that the applicant had offered to remove the regulated entertainment from the application and had offered to restrict the use of the balcony area. Mr Wareing also raised concerns that this premises could potentially have up to 42 days of temporary events.
Mr Alex Lisowski, Licensing Services, referred to his statement detailed in the agenda and stated that it ... view the full minutes text for item 5.2 |
|
REPORT TO FOLLOW Additional documents: Minutes: At the request of the Chair, Mr Mohshin Ali, Senior Licensing Officer, introduced the report which detailed the application for a Temporary Event Notice for the Car Park rear of Rhythm Factory, 16-18 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1EW. It was noted that objections had been made by Environmental Health and the Metropolitan Police.
At the request of the Chair, Mr Anthony Hoete, Agent for the Applicant explained that the Police had requested for information which were not required for TEN applications, however, these had been provided to the Police. Mr Hoete questioned the reasons for the objections made by both the responsible authorities as he believed it could have been a part of the process and only a duty of care to object to every application.
He explained that there had only been one incident in the venue in 14 years and as a duty of care the police had been called to the venue. He explained that there had been no communication from the Police when the application was sent in, all additional information requested had been provided, there would be ten SIA security staff, twice the staffing then what the guideline suggested.
Mr Hoete, explained that patrons would pass through the Rhythm Factory as a secure entry to the car park, the building opposite the car park was unoccupied and therefore no potential to cause disturbance to residents. In summary he stated that the Police objections were unfounded and happy to agree noise levels with Environmental Health to address their concerns.
At this point Mr Greeno, asked if an option would be for noise levels to be monitored and a way of enforcement would be to serve an abatement notice to the applicant if noise levels were exceeded. Mr Wareing stated that music playing constantly was difficult to monitor. He confirmed that statutory nuisance could be dealt with by way of an abatement notice, however public nuisance could not be.
PC Mark Perry, Metropolitan Police stated that he didn’t regularly object to applications as just part of a process, but objected to applications when necessary. He stated that the application did not include a risk assessment, a security plan etc and for an event for 499 people this needed to be done in order to be managed and policed well. He concluded that the risk assessment provided was not sufficient, it was too rushed and there was risk of crime and disorder.
Mr Wareing mentioned that there were two other events being advertised at the Rhythm Factory, one at 10pm and one at 11pm the same day as the temporary event. After much discussion it was noted that some tickets had been sold for these events but the rest would be sold at the door.
In response to further questions the applicant confirmed that there would be little cross over between events as it was unlikely that the same people would attend both events (day and night).
It was also noted that ... view the full minutes text for item 5.3 |
|
ANY OTHER BUSINESS THAT THE CHAIR CONSIDERS URGENT Minutes: There was no other business. |