Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chair for the purposes of this meeting.

RESOLVED:  That Councillor June Baxter 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 all 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.

The Licensing panel hearing was held in person and 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 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 application was for a new premises licence for a restaurant which would also operate as members lounge during later hours (if the License were to be granted).  During the consultation period, the Applicant, Kunjal Shaikh (“the Applicant”) had agreed proposed conditions with the police which also included a change to the hours sought for licensable activities to end at 03:00am instead of the requested 04:00am in the application.  In addition, as part of the consultation process, the authority received a representation from Licensing Enforcement acting in its capacity as a responsible authority.  The representation sought further information and documents relied upon within the Application.  The Authority also received two representations from local residents / businesses (“the Objectors”) concerned predominantly with the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance, citing a possible increase in antisocial behaviour, public nuisance, a risk to public safety and concerns with the hours sought in the application.

The Applicant attended the hearing and was represented by a Mr Panchal (“the Agent”).  Mr Alan Riley, Licensing Officer, attended the hearing in his capacity as the responsible authority, Mr Ally Darwood, Licensing Officer in his capacity as the licensing authority and one of the Objectors was also present.

The Agent explained that the Applicant has had a personal licence for the past three years and operates two other 24-hour premises in other boroughs without any issues of breach.  The current proposed Application seeks to operate as a members lounge beyond the hours of midnight with a capacity of between 50-60 people at any one time.  The Agent submitted further documents in response to Mr Riley’s representation during the hearing and in accordance with The Licensing Act 2003 (Hearings) Regulations 2005 Paragraph 18, permission of all parties present was sought and no objections were raised.  The further documents comprised of a ‘Dispersal Policy’, a ‘Specimen Constitution,’ a ‘Membership Application Form’ and training literature / manual, all of which were said to support the Applicant and premises in meeting the licensing objectives.  The Agent confirmed additional provisions would be implemented including placing notices/posters around the premises relating to people leaving the premises quietly to prevent public nuisance and implementing the challenge 25 policy.  The Agent added that the training manual would have the usual right to work checks and the regular training would be logged along with the premises holding an incident log and refusal log.  The Agent confirmed the Applicant would also be happy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.