Agenda and draft minutes

To appoint a Chair for the meeting

Councillor Norman was elected chair of the meeting.

No declarations were made on this occasion.

Chair to arrange introductions and explain the procedure to be followed during the meeting

The Chair, Members and Council Officers present introduced themselves.

Gloucestershire Constabulary was represented by David McFarlane, Mark Mansfield and Jemma Stevenson.

The Applicant, Avni Duka was represented by his solicitor, Kieron Griffin of Griffin and Dee.

To receive the report of the Head of Public Protection

Licensing Officer’s Report

The Licensing Officer presented the report which detailed an application by Avni Duka to vary an existing premises licence in respect of the Picturedrome Theatre, 162-166 Barton Street, Gloucester.

She drew Members’ attention to the variations requested by the Applicant which were detailed at paragraph 3.5 of the report.

Two representations had been received from Responsible Authorities, Gloucestershire Constabulary and the City Council Environmental Protection Officer. She reported that the Applicant had agreed to accept the measures proposed by the Responsible Authorities.

She advised that 69 representations had been received from Other Persons together with three petitions containing 337 signatures.

She summarised the legal implications detailed at Section 6.0 of the report and drew Members’ attention to Paragraph 6.9.

Neither the Applicant nor the Responsible Authorities had any questions of the Officer.

Councillor Randle asked for clarification of the hours requested for Thursdays and she was advised that the premises would close at midnight.

The Applicant’s Representative

Mr Griffin advised that he had become involved with this application at a late stage.

He noted that Mr Duka had agreed readily to the proposals of the Responsible Authorities including closure at 01.00hrs and as result the application now represented only a modest change to the existing premises licence.

Works had already been started to comply with the proposals including noise attenuation measures.

He noted that there had previously been four public houses in the vicinity. The Blenheim, the India House and the Vauxhall Inn had all closed leaving One-Eyed Jack’s as the only other licensed premises in the locality.

The premises for which the variation had been applied for had always been licensed and Mr Duka had taken over an existing premises licence. He had considerably improved the appearance of the building.

In conclusion, he believed that it would be difficult to sustain an objection to this application in a locality where there were only two licensed premises and there had historically been four.

There were no questions from the Responsible Authorities.

Councillor McLellan referred to the description of the premises as a café bar and asked if the premises would be used as a nightclub.

Mr Griffin responded that it was not intended to use the premises as a 24 hour nightclub but to provide a venue for local trade and parties.

Councillor McLellan noted that some premises had an automatic cut out device which turned off the sound system if the volume exceeded a specified level. He asked if it was intended to install such a device.

He was advised that the noise alleviation measures required by Environmental Protection would be implemented and the Applicant would discuss the matter further with Environmental Protection. He was also advised that the car park was not part of the licensed premises and security staff would be available to guide people.

Councillor Randle was advised that the CCTV cover of the surrounding streets was not good and she questioned whether security staff would be adequately insured to undertake duties  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.