Agenda and draft minutes

To appoint a Chairman for the meeting.

Councillor P. Smith chaired the meeting.

Report of the Licensing Officer considering the application for a variation of the premises license at the Bakehouse, Bessemer Road, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 1HH.

Introduction and Procedure

The purpose of the meeting was to consider an application for variation of the premises licence in place at The Bakehouse, Bessemer Road, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 1HH. The variation application sough to extend the premises sale of alcohol hours on Fridays and Saturdays to 10:00 – 02:30, with an extension to premises opening hours Friday - Saturday to 07:00 - 03:00..

The Licence Hearing is as a result of the Licensing Authority receiving three formal written relevant representations against the application, a representation from Hertfordshire Police and two representations from local residents. The representations to the application have been submitted under the Licensing Act 2003 on the statutory grounds of:

·       Prevention of crime and disorder

·       Public Safety

·       Prevention of public nuisance

Documentary Evidence

The report of the Licensing Officer, the variation application and supporting documents, along with written representations had been previously circulated.

Report of the Licensing Officer

The Licensing Officer presented the report, explaining that the representation received from the police was on the grounds of prevention of crime and disorder, whereas the representations from residents relate to the licensing objectives of prevention of crime and disorder, prevention of public nuisance and public safety.

The officer explained to the hearing the choices available to the panel:

·       To grant the variation of the licence as proposed.

·       To modify the conditions of the licence by altering or omitting or adding to them (and for this purpose the conditions of the licence are modified if any of them is altered or omitted or any new condition is added).

·       To exclude any of the licensable activities to which the application relates.

·       To refuse to specify a person in the licence as the designated premises supervisor.

·       To reject the whole of the application or part of it. 

The licensing authority may grant an application subject to different conditions in respect of:

·       Different parts of the premises concerned

·       Different licensable activities

The Applicant

C. Grunert, John Gaunt and Partners, spoke as the applicant representing Marstons PLC. He drew attention to the fact that the council’s Environmental Health team had not objected to the application with regards to noise nuisance; their absence from this hearing suggests there is no history of noise issues at the premises.

The applicant did not accept that there is a high level of violence associated with the premises or that additional hours would unavoidably lead to additional crime. They stated that no CCTV has ever been requested in relation to any incident.

The applicant stated that additional conditions had been proposed as mediation  which had not been accepted by the objectors. These were:

·       Save for the purposes of exit and egress, windows and doors are to remain closed after 23:00, when live and/or recorded music is being played from the premises.

·       On any Friday and Saturday evenings when the Premises intends to carry on licensable activity after 1 am, the premises shall employ at least 2 SIA door staff from 8pm.

In addition

·       On any Friday and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.