Agenda and minutes

Venue: Wheatstone Hall, City Museum, Brunswick Road, Gloucester GL1 1HP. View directions

Contact: Sonia Tucker  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

13.

Election of Chair

Minutes:

Councillor Witts was elected Chair of the meeting.

14.

Introductions and Procedures

Minutes:

The Chair introduced the Members of the Sub-Committee and Council Officers in attendance and outlined the procedure for the hearing.

 

In addition to the Sub-Committee and Council Officers in attendance, the following were present:-

 

Mr Jeremy Bark, Solicitor, Berwin, Leighton, Paisner representing the Applicant.

 

Mr Robert Shaw, Operations Manager, Tesco Express, Gloucester Area.

 

15.

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:

No declarations were made on this occasion.

16.

Application under Section 17 of the Licensing Act 2003 in respect of Tesco Express, Grange Road, Tuffley, Gloucester, GL4 OPG pdf icon PDF 8 MB

Report of the Corporate Director for Services and Neighbourhoods

Minutes:

Licensing & Enforcement Officer

 

The Licensing and Enforcement Officer presented the application for a new premises licence in respect of Tesco Express, Grange Road, Tuffley under Section 17 of the Licensing Act 2003 for the retail sale of alcohol (off sales only), Monday to Sunday (inclusive) from 06.00 to 23.00 hours.

 

She advised the Sub-Committee that the application had been received on 16th October and had been advertised on the premises and in the Gloucester Citizen.

 

She drew Members’ attention to the planning restrictions in relation to opening hours and to loading and unloading of service/delivery vehicles. She emphasised that the premises licence, if granted, would not override other regulatory controls and premises operated in breach of planning permission would be liable to prosecution under planning law.

 

She noted the measures proposed by the Applicant to promote the four licensing Objectives – the Prevention of Crime and Disorder; Public Safety; the Prevention of Public Nuisance and the Protection of Children from Harm.

 

She referred to the two representations from ‘Other Persons’ and advised Members that they must be relevant, relate to the proposed licensable activity and its effect on at least one of the licensing objectives and not be vexatious or frivolous. She noted there had been no representations from Responsible Authorities.

 

Mr Bark advised that Mr Greg Bartley who had been named as the Designated Premises Supervisor in the application was the Company’s national licensing manager and was named in all applications for new premises licences by the Company. A variation would be sought when the store manager had been appointed.

 

In answer to a question, he confirmed that an application for a variation would be made electronically.

 

Lisa Jones confirmed that licensing applications, with the exception of personal licences, would only be accepted by electronic means from 2013.

 

There were no questions relating to the Officer’s report.

 

Applicant

 

Mr Jeremy Bark, representing Tesco Stores Ltd, explained that the permitted hours applied for reflected the Company’s standard core trading hours for Tesco Express stores. The Company would comply with the planning restriction on opening hours and although it would not be unusual to seek a variation in the planning conditions in the future, he was not aware of any intention to do so at the present time.

 

He noted that Tesco Express was the smallest of the Company’s retail formats and customers of the convenience stores typically purchased one or two bags of shopping and alcohol formed a small but important part of the total sales. He noted that there were 10 Express stores in the City and alcohol sales were typically in the region of 7-9 per cent of sales.

 

He noted that Tesco endeavoured to achieve best practice nationally and worked closely with the Police therefore it was not surprising that there had been no representations from the Constabulary.

 

He advised Members that the Company had been the first in the country to voluntarily introduce a Think 25 policy working closely with the Home Office and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.