Agenda and minutes

The Chair introduced the Members of the Sub Committee and welcomed everyone to the hearing.

The Senior Licensing Officer outlined the purpose of the hearing, which was to request an extension of the terminal hour for the sale of alcohol, regulated entertainment and late night refreshment from midnight until 02:00 hours Sunday – Wednesday and from 01:00 hours to 03:00 hours on Thursdays plus an additional thirty minutes after the permitted licensable hours on those days.  This would bring the licensable hours and closing times in line with those already permitted on Fridays and Saturdays.  The application for the variation had been received on 18 July 2013.

The Sub-Committee were informed that objections to the requested variation had been received from Mr Neil Polden, NBC Senior Environmental Health Officer, on the grounds of the Prevention of Public Nuisance and from an interested party, who did not wish to attend and speak at the meeting but had requested that their objection be considered in their absence.

One page from the Senior Environmental Health Officer’s objection had not been submitted with the agenda and a revised version of the report, including that page, was circulated to members of the Sub-Committee and the parties present at the meeting.

Application for Variation to a Premises License

The applicant, Mr Connor, stated that the premises had been operated by J D Wetherspoon Ltd since July 2009 and before that had been operated by Yates Ltd and were a well established part of the town’s night time economy.  The premises operated as a traditional Wetherspoons pub during the day, without music, with background music played in the evening and becoming an entertainment venue as the night progressed.  The application was to extend the opening hours to 02:30 on Sunday-Wednesday and to 03:30 on Thursday.  It was intended to run student nights on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  The reason for the application was that people tended to arrive later at venues now (the premises often only became busy at approximately 23:00 or 23:30 hours, but not always then) and customers tended to leave the Cordwainer to move on to establishments with later opening hours.  The premises currently used TENS for later hours on Bank Holidays and extending the hours of the premises would remove the necessity of applying for TENS.  Mr Connor stated that there were advantages in extending the opening hours of the premises in that this prevented the migration of customers between premises with varying opening hours and allowed a more gradual dispersal.

Mr Connor referred to the Council’s policy statement for licensed premises, which sought greater flexibility in opening times for premises and stated that the Cordwainer was a well run premise with an experienced manager and had measures in place to meet the licensing objectives.  The premises had been accredited each year since J D Wetherspoon Ltd had taken over their operation.  There was a high ratio of staff to customers, with two or three managers on duty each night and door management  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.