Agenda item

To consider the attached report.

The three Councillors that presided over this application were Councillors J Jennings, L Mead and P Stalker.

 

The Chairman introduced the Members and Officers present. The Chairman welcomed the participant, and in attendance on behalf of the applicant was Mr L Charalambides (barrister). There were no objectors present.

 

a)         The Application before the Sub-Committee

 

The Licensing Compliance Officer, H Ibrahim, informed the Sub-Committee that an application had been made by Corrigan Lockett Limited on behalf of Martin McColl Limited, the Premises Licence Holder, for a variation to the existing premises licence for McColls, 65 High Street, Roydon, Harlow CM19 5EE.

 

The Licensing Authority had received the application on 17 June 2020. A copy of the present licence for the premises, the application for variation including proposed conditions and the public notice were attached to the agenda.

 

The application set out the varied licensing activities applied for and times requested.

 

Sale by retail of alcohol for consumption off the premises:

 

The applicant was requesting to extend the hours to:

Monday to Sunday, 06.00 – 23.00

 

Current hours:

Weekdays, 08.00 – 23.00

Sundays, 10.00 – 22.30

 

Sale by retail of alcohol on Christmas day

 

The applicant was requesting to remove the seasonal restrictions from the premises licence.

 

Current restrictions:

Christmas Day, 12.00 – 15.00 and 19.00 – 22.30

 

The applicant was requesting that the Licensing Authority allow for the delivery service of alcohol and grocery products from the premises using a delivery service provider within the permitted times stated on the premises licence.

 

The applicant was wishing to add conditions under Annex 2 (Conditions consistent with the Operating Schedule), of the premises licence. These included the use of CCTV, staff training, a till ‘age restriction’ prompt, a sale refusal log, a Challenge 25 policy for both in store and on delivery with prominent signage, the location of spirits behind the counter and the prepayment of all delivery sales. Full details were attached in the agenda.

 

The application had been properly advertised at the premises, in a local newspaper and the public notice was attached to the agenda. All residences and businesses within a 150-metre radius of the premises had been individually consulted.

 

The Council had received four letters of objection that had related to the four licensing objectives of the Licensing Act 2003 – the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance and the protection of children form harm.

 

Essex County Fire & Rescue Service, who had responded and audited the application,  was of the opinion, taking into consideration the information submitted, that there was no additional risk to the public as a consequence of the proposed application being approved.

 

b)         Presentation of the Applicant’s Case

 

Mr Charalambides informed the Sub-Committee that this application was based on policy, specifically paragraphs 10.13 to 10.15 of the section 108 guidance in relation to retail shop hours, where effectively shops should be open whenever retail was on offer. McColls was seeking to match the retail hours to the policy, that being 06.00 to 23.00 daily at this convenience store. Guidance by the Secretary of State clearly supported that stores should normally be allowed to provide the consumption of alcohol off the premises at any time when the store was open for shopping unless there were good reasons. The Business and Planning Act 2020 effectively allowed those hours in any event, but McColls wanted to regularise that. The reason this started in part before Covid-19 was that McColls was an important part of the retail community and was seeking to match the opening hours with the licensing hours, as this aided due diligence and staff training. The licences were in effect grandfathered by the old regime. There was nothing new on the additional conditions but these reflected their existing practises for CCTV, Challenge 25 policy and regular training etc.

 

McColls was a national operator in the multicultural society that we lived in and so did not want to favour one religious holiday over another religious or festival day, which the Council recognised in its own Licensing Policy at 1.14 on equality duty. The same Licensing Policy at paragraph 7.1, replicated the Secretary of State’s guidance that the Council recognised opening hours should match the licensable activities, as McColls was a community store. McColls did not want disorder, anti-social behaviour or underage sales, but wanted the same things as the local community. Small stores were playing a crucial role in the current Covid-19 restrictions and therefore, the whole range of options and early opening hours were needed. No disputes had been raised by the Council’s responsible authorities, expert advisors or Legal officers, and that the steps in the operating schedule were satisfactory, as supported by the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service response given in the agenda. In terms of the delivery aspect, the fact that McColls could supply and sell alcohol at the point of transaction on the premises meant that it could deliver this with or without the Council’s authority but had wanted to co-operate with the Licensing Authority. Moreover, this emergency period had accelerated the importance that deliveries now had. In the absence of legitimate representations as some of them were general and some were not relevant, i.e. parking problems, McColls was a committed store to promoting the licensing objectives as given in the operating schedule.

 

c)         Questions for the Applicant from the Sub-Committee

 

Councillors L Mead and P Stalker had no questions for the applicant’s barrister.

 

d)        Questions for the Applicant from the Objectors

 

In the absence of any objectors, Councillor J Jennings asked the following questions posed by the objectors in their written submissions to this application.

 

Parking was not a relevant objection, but because of parking in relation to delivery lorries, was there any way that McColls could mitigate the inconvenience of deliveries at 06.00 when many people would not be awake? Mr Charalambides did not have the delivery schedules, but this was an existing premises with existing planning permission to which the delivery times were arranged. The last thing McColls wanted to do was upset the local people that it wanted to shop there, so he would take this back to the client and see if this could be mitigated. The deliveries came throughout the day but he did not have the exact delivery times for this store.

 

The other objection was in respect of extending alcohol sales on Christmas day that concerned the objectors and did Mr Charalambides have any further comment to make? Mr Charalambides replied this was a hangover from the 1964 Act as the 2003 Licensing Act was the current legislation and did not have any preference over one religious group to another, or one day of the year over another. Christmas fell on different days and the 1964 Act was out of date. If people wanted to go shopping for last minute products, they should be allowed to do so, and it was a public sector equality duty not to favour one religious group over another.

 

e)         Presentation of the Objectors

 

There were no objectors present.

 

f)         Questions for the Objectors from the Sub-Committee

 

There were no objectors present.

 

g)        Questions for the Objectors from the Applicant

 

There were no objectors present.

 

h)        Closing Statement from the Objectors

 

There was no closing statement.

 

i)             Closing Statement from the Applicant

 

Mr Charalambides commended the application to the Sub-Committee. McColls was a well-known operator. If McColls got it wrong then the licence could be reviewed, but to date this had never happened.

 

j)          Consideration of the Application by the Sub-Committee

 

The Chairman advised that the Sub-Committee would go into private deliberations to consider the application.

 

During their deliberations the Sub-Committee received the following advice from the Legal Officer present that each case must be decided on its merits.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the application to vary the premises licence in respect of McColls, 65 High Street, Roydon CM19 5EE licence be granted:

 

1.   Subject to the existing conditions on the licence modified as set out in the application to vary the licence on page 73 of the Agenda for today’s meeting and to the standard Mandatory Conditions.

 

The variation of the premises licence determined was to:

 

(1)          extend the sale of alcohol to between 06.00 hours and 23.00 hours Monday to Sunday for consumption off the Premises;

 

(2)          to remove seasonal restrictions relating to the retail sale of alcohol on Christmas day from the Premises Licence;

 

(3)        allow for a delivery service of alcohol and grocery products from the Premises using a delivery service provider within the permitted times of the Premises Licence, and

 

(4)          to add conditions to the Premises Licence as contained in annex 2 of the application and set out on page 73 of today’s Agenda.

 

The Sub Committee considered what was appropriate to promote the four licensing objectives and the relevant part of the Council’s Licensing Policy and the Home Office’s guidance. The Sub-Committee considered that the licensing objectives of prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance and protection of children form harm were engaged and noted that there had been no objections from any Responsible Authorities.

 

The applicants were reminded of their right of appeal to the Magistrates Court within 21 days of date of the written notification of this decision.

 

Annex 2 conditions

 

Updated Conditions

 

1.  A suitable and sufficient CCTV system with recording facilities will be in place at site and will operate at all times the premise is open for licensable activities. Images can be made available upon reasonable request (meaning within 48 hours) by the Police or other relevant officers of a responsible authority.

 

2.  Staff will be trained with regard to their responsibilities in the retail sale of alcohol and regular refresher training (every 6 months) will also be undertaken. Training records can be made available for inspection upon reasonable request (meaning within 48 hours) by the Police or other relevant officers of a responsible authority.

 

3.  A till prompt system will be in operation at the store and used for the refusal of all age restricted products.

 

4.  An electronic refusal log will be operated and maintained and will be produced to a relevant officer of the Police or other relevant officers of a responsible authority upon reasonable request (meaning within 48 hours).

 

5.  A Challenge 25 policy will be operated at the premise; forms of identification that will be accepted are a valid passport, photo card driving licence, a PASS accredited identification card or a Military ID.

 

6.  The licence holder shall display prominent signage confirming the company’s Challenge 25 policy.

 

7.  Spirits will be located behind the counter.

 

8.  The Premises Licence Holder shall be permitted to undertake the delivery of goods including alcohol by a third-party delivery company.

 

9.  The premises shall operate in accordance with the Challenge 25 scheme. The scheme operates on the basis that, whilst alcohol may be sold to persons aged 18 years and over, at the point of delivery any person who appears under 25 years of age will be asked for a valid form of identification. This challenge will be made by the person making the delivery.

a)  The only acceptable forms of valid ID are a:

i. proof of age card bearing the PASS hologram logo;

ii. passport; or

iii. UK photo driving licence

iv. Military ID

 

b)  Alcohol will not be delivered to any person who is challenged and fails to provide an acceptable form of ID.

 

10.  All delivery sales of alcohol must be paid for at the time of ordering. Payment shall be made by debit or credit card, or electronic payment such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, etc.