Meeting documents

RESOLVED (UNANIMOUS): that Councillor Rainsbury be appointed chairman for the meeting.

Councillor Rainsbury chaired the meeting.

There were no apologies reported.

There were no declarations of interest declared.

The Licensing Panel considered an application by Lancashire Constabulary for a review of a premises licence under Section 51 of the Licensing Act 2003. This application was in respect of Singh Stores, 103-105 Bannister Drive, Leyland.

With the permission of the panel and in accordance with the council?s hearing procedure, the Licensing Officer introduced the application.

The applicant (Lancashire Constabulary?s representative, Sergeant Bushell), then addressed the panel and questions were asked.

Mr Bhalihar Singh (Premises Licence Holder (PLH) & Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS)), Mandip Singh (Mr B Singh?s brother) and Mrs Sukhdip Randhawa (premises? leaseholder) accompanied by Mr David Farley (Counsel for Singh Stores) were present. Mr Farley then addressed the panel and questions were asked.

Also present was a representative of the premises? landlord (Linda Alcock - New Progress Housing Association) and PCSO Berwick (Lancashire Constabulary).

The meeting was adjourned at 2.10pm.
This was to enable the Panel to assess some late submissions by Singh Stores (CCTV installation/maintenance statements, copy of a refusals log and a petition in support of retaining the sale of alcohol in the store.

The meeting re-convened at 2.38pm.

Having fully considered the representations, the panel retired to reach its decision.

In reaching their decision the panel took into account the following ?

? both written and oral evidence presented in connection with the hearing
? Licensing Act 2003
? S182 Amended Guidance of the Licensing Act 2003 and taken into account the references to the guidance made by both parties
? South Ribble Borough Council?s Licensing Policy

RESOLVED (UNANIMOUS): that the decision on the application to review the premises licence in respect of Singh Stores, 103-105 Bannister Drive, Leyland, be as set out below.

The Panel:-
Initially considered whether any of the licensing objectives had been undermined. Their conclusion was that the objectives had been undermined.

In light of the above the Panel went on to consider the options available which were:
- Do nothing
- Revoke
- Suspend the licence
- Remove DPS
- Apply/Modify the Conditions on the Licence

As the Panel had already concluded that the licensing objectives had been undermined it felt that to do nothing was not an option. It discounted the option to Revoke the licence as the Panel felt that this would be a disproportionate step to redress the balance. It also discounted the option to suspend the licence as the Panel felt that this would not serve any useful purpose, nor did it wish to remove Mr Singh as the DPS as it was also felt this would not address the problem.

The Panel then went on to consider whether altering or adding Conditions to the licence would be enough to redress the balance in respect of the licensing objectives and in particular the prevention of crime and disorder objective.

The Panel wished the Conditions previously agreed by the Police and submitted to the Licensing Authority in their letter dated 8 October 2012 be added to the licence. These were namely:

1. All staff will be trained in licensing issues with specific training in respect of preventing underage sales and preventing sale of alcohol to drunks.
2. Records of this training will be kept on site and made immediately available for inspection to an authorised officer or Police Officer.
3. The premises shall have an operational CCTV system which covers all entrances and exits in addition to covering the public sales area and records throughout the permitted hours of retail sales of alcohol. Recordings shall be maintained in their unedited format for at least 28 days and be provided on the reasonable request of a Police Officer or authorised officer.
4. The premises will operate a Challenge 25 policy, which will be advertised prominently throughout the alcohol display areas and at the point of sale.
5. A refusals/incident register will be maintained at the premises and used to record every instance where a sale is refused and the reason why i.e. no proof of age or customer drunk.
6. Notices will be displayed at the exits requesting customers not to cause nuisance by littering or creating noise nuisance.

In addition the Panel wished the following conditions should also be added:

7. The holder of a personal licence should be in attendance at the shop whenever the premises is open for the permitted retail sale of alcohol.
8. All staff will be trained in conflict management and a record of such training shall be kept and made available for inspection by an authorised officer or Police officer.

The Panel then went on to make the following recommendations:

1. The PLH should be encouraged to join a local pubwatch scheme
2. The PLH, Police, Housing Association and other community should work together to deal with the ongoing issues.

On hearing the decision Counsel for Singh Stores confirmed that the PLH wished to withdraw his application to vary the licence. As a result the scheduled subsequent hearing was cancelled.
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