Agenda and minutes

Resolved:  That Councillor Douglas be elected to Chair the meeting.

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

Members were asked to declare any personal interests not

included on the Register of Interests, any prejudicial interests or

any disclosable pecuniary interests which they may have in respect of business on this agenda. None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of Licensing Hearings held on 27 February and 15 May 2017.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the Licensing Hearings held on the 27 February and 15 May 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Members considered an application by Punch Taverns Plc for Variation to Premises Licence Section 35 (3) (a) in respect of Fulford Arms, 121 Fulford Road, York,YO10 4EX.

In considering the application, and the representations made, the sub-Committee concluded the following licensing objectives were particularly relevant to this hearing:

3.      The prevention of public nuisance.

In coming to their decision, the Sub-Committee took into consideration all the evidence and submissions that were presented, and determined their relevance to the issues raised and the above licensing objectives, including:

1.   The application form, in particular the existing licence conditions and the additional steps agreed to be taken by the applicant in the operating schedule for the current licence to promote the four licensing objectives.

2.   The Licensing Officer’s report and her comments made at the Hearing. She outlined the application and advised that consultation had been carried out in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003. She also highlighted that there had been no representations made by responsible authorities and that three of the five written representations received from other persons had been withdrawn. In relation to the second bullet point of paragraph 5 of her report, the Licensing Officer clarified that the application is to remove condition 8 and not condition 7.

3.   The applicants representations at the Hearing, and those of their solicitor. The solicitor stated that the applicants had been operating for three and a half years and that the change of use had been ‘organic’, with music and events becoming a more significant part of the business. There was a community focus to these events, with many being for charitable purposes. There were occasional outdoor events but these were covered by Temporary Event Notices (TENs). It was felt that the outdoor events may be where some of the issues highlighted in the written representations had stemmed from. There had only been one complaint in respect of noise made to the Environment Protection Unit (EPU) which was over 12 months old. This had been due to a door being left ajar and this had been rectified immediately, with no complaints since. The applicants had provided all those living in the block of flats opposite the premises with contact telephone numbers to use should they have any complaints. As none had been received, the applicants were confident that there was no disturbance from recorded music. The solicitor also advised the sub-committee that the applicants were withdrawing their application for live music until 02:00.

4.   The two of the five representations received in writing that had not been withdrawn (being those at pages 61 to 62 and 68 of the Agenda papers).

In respect of the proposed variations to the licence, the Sub-Committee had to determine whether to take any of the steps mentioned under Section 35(4) that it considered necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives. Having regard to the above evidence and representations received, the Sub-Committee considered the steps which were available to them to take under Section 18(3) of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.