Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chair for the purposes of this meeting.

RESOLVED:  That Councillor Maxine Henson be appointed Chair of the Licensing Panel Hearing.

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)          all Members of the Panel;

(b)          all other Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no declarations of interest made by members

[Note:  Licensing Panel minutes are:-

(1)          approved following each meeting by the Members serving on that particular occasion and signed as a correct record by the Chair for that meeting;

(2)          not submitted to the next panel meeting for approval.

Reasons:  The Licensing Panel is constituted from a pooled membership. Consequently, a subsequent Panel meeting is likely to comprise a different Chair and Members who took no part in the previous meeting’s proceedings.  The process referred to at (1) above provides appropriate approval scrutiny].

(See Note at conclusion of these minutes).

Procedure to be followed at an oral hearing.

The Chair asked the Panel Members, officer/s, Responsible Authority/ies and other attendees at the meeting to introduce themselves and then outlined the procedure for the conduct of an oral hearing, which was set out in the agenda.

Report of the Interim Director, Environmental Services

In attendance:

The Licensing panel carefully considered all the relevant information including:

·                 Written and oral representations by all the parties

·                 The Licensing Act 2003 and the steps that are appropriate to promote the licensing objectives

·                 The Guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003

·                 Harrow Council’s Licensing Policy

·                 Human Rights Act 1998

The Licensing Panel hearing was held remotely via an online platform.  The sub-committee were present throughout and were able to see and hear all representations made.

In making its decision, the Licensing panel carefully considered the application and all written representations, as set out within the report and the verbal representations made at the hearing.

The application was for a new premises licence for a restaurant, with facilities for shisha in the rear yard in a structure yet to be completed.  During the consultation period, the applicant had agreed with the police, a change to the hours open to the public and for the supply of alcohol, but at the hearing the applicant also confirmed that the hours for late night refreshment should be amended to match the agreed closing times each day.  The Panel considers that this change and the other agreed times (as set out in the table above) are now satisfactory.

In addition, the Panel noted the conditions agreed between the police and the applicant, and subject to deleting two of them, the panel considered the remaining conditions suitable for the promotion of the licensing objectives.

The Panel noted that the proposed rear shisha area was not ready yet, and whilst planning requirements are separate from licensing, given that the applicant sought to have licensable activities in that area too, it did cause concern that there was no clarity as to how that area would look in terms of design, capacity etc.  The applicant’s representative confirmed that the applicant had been advised to go and look at other shisha lounge designs and work with his architect to ensure that any structure is not only compliant with local planning requirements and the Health Act 2006, but also to seek a design that minimises noise and smoke disturbance.

The two conditions deleted (numbers 4 and 7) to do with ID and door supervisors are being deleted from those agreed with the police on the basis that shisha will not be running at the premises currently and it will effectively be a restaurant only.  However, should the applicant continue with his plans to have shisha at the premises in the future, he is advised to work closely with the Responsible Authorities and to have measures in place similar to those required by the deleted conditions.

The applicant’s representative also clarified issues of concern in relation to the blocked staircase at the rear of the property and confirmed that they had contacted the nearby school to find out if the school had any concerns about the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 102.