Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:  That Councillor Angella Murphy-Strachan be appointed Chair of the Licensing Panel Hearing.

[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].

The Chair asked the Panel Members, officers, Responsible Authorities 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 Corporate Director Community

In attendance:

The Licensing Panel carefully considered all relevant information including

·                     Written and oral representations by all the parties;

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

·                     The Guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 (2018 being the most recent);

·                     Harrow Council’s Licensing Policy;

·                     Human Rights Act 1998

·                     The considerations in s.17 of the Crime and disorder Act 1998

Members of the Panel also took into consideration the following, full details of which were set out in the Decision Notice sent to all interested parties:

The Panel found that the licensee had failed to uphold the licensing objectives of public safety, the prevention of public nuisance and the prevention of crime and disorder.

The Panel considered that the proposed reduction in weekday hours proposed by the licence holder would not be sufficient to deal with the problem.  Significant reductions in the hours were necessary to prevent or reduce alcohol-related incidents.  But the Panel did not consider that it was necessary, on top of this and the new and modified conditions, to cease licensable activities 60 minutes before closing (as proposed by responsible authorities) rather than 30 minutes (as currently).

The Panel agreed that the dispersal policy needed to be improved and the relevant condition tightened to ensure this.

The Panel found that, although the issue of the number of patrons had implications beyond fire safety, there was no evidential basis for reducing it below its current figure unless the fire officer found it necessary to do so.  The Panel considered that the other relevant issues could be addressed by the tighter dispersal policy (which would require the agreement of both the police and the licensing authority).

In addition to the above the Panel agreed to add the new conditions conceded or proposed by the licence holder, except as to CCTV as the Panel noted that the licence already specified that the CCTV system must be “comprehensive” and “to the satisfaction of the Metropolitan Police”, so any current deficiencies are required to be dealt with between the police and the licence holder.

RESOLVED:  To take the following steps in relation to the premises, as appropriate to promote the licensing objectives.

Modify the times and conditions of the licence as follows:

1.            Change the hours open to the public to the following:

2.            Changes the times the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.