Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Sonia Tucker  Democratic Services Officer

Note: Special Meeting 

Items
No. Item

28.

Declarations of Interest

To receive from Members, declarations of the existence of any disclosable pecuniary, or non-pecuniary, interests and the nature of those interests in relation to any agenda item. Please see Agenda Notes.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

 

29.

Application for a Sex Establishment Licence - Alan Whitehead, Minx Club, 12-16 Lower Quay Street, Gloucester, GL1 2JS pdf icon PDF 179 KB

To consider the report of the Head of Public Protection.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Presentation by Senior Licensing and Markets Officer

 

The Senior Licensing and Markets Officer presented the Committee with an application for a Sex Establishment Licence by Mr Alan Whitehead at Minx Club, 12-16 Lower Quay Street, to use the premises as a Sexual Entertainment Venue. The Senior Licensing and Markets Officer summarised the key points in the report that Members needed to consider. The Committee was advised that two objections had been received; one from the Police regarding concerns about the legitimacy of Mr Whitehead’s given address, and one from the Chief Constable for Gloucestershire received outside of the consultation period regarding concerns about Mr Ross Connock’s involvement in the business following his conviction for a number of accounting offences. The Senior Licensing and Markets Officer advised that legal advice had been sought in respect of the objection received outside of the consultation period and deemed it appropriate to be considered.

 

Questions of Clarification on the Officer’s presentation

 

Speaking on behalf of the Applicant, Mr Winston Brown asked on what basis the objection received outside of the consultation period was being included.

         

The Solicitor explained that, under paragraph 3.26 of the relevant Home Office guidance, the Council was entitled to accept representations received outside of the consultation period if they were deemed to be relevant and were presented to the Applicant to respond; the objection from the Chief Constable for Gloucestershire was being accepted on that basis.

 

Presentation by Applicant

 

Representing Mr Alan Whitehead (the Applicant), Mr Winston Brown addressed the Committee in support of the application. Mr Brown noted that the Committee was considering the involvement of Mr Ross Connock in the running of the business and the objection that he was unsuitable due to having relevant convictions. He advised that Mr Connock had two previous convictions for drink driving that had occurred some time ago and he considered them not to be relevant to the licence application. He acknowledged Mr Connock’s convictions for financial impropriety in relation to a similar business and argued that these were also not relevant to the application because Mr Connock was no longer involved in the running of the business. Mr Brown explained that Mr Whitehead was the owner and that Mr Ben Eyles, who had a clean DBS and relevant certification, was managing the premises. He advised that Mr Connock had been diagnosed with a serious health condition and had subsequently not, and would not in the future, be able to be involved in the business. Mr Brown stated that the discontinuation of Mr Connock’s involvement in the business satisfied the concerns raised by the Police.

 

Councillor Witts asked why the application wasn’t amended in advance of the meeting to inform the Committee of the discontinuation of Mr Connock’s involvement in the business.

 

Mr Brown advised that the timing of the late objection by the Chief Constable for Gloucestershire meant that it was not possible to respond to the concerns raised in advance of the meeting.

 

Councillor Hanman stated that it appeared  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.