Agenda and minutes

To receive and record declarations of interests from any of the members present in respect of any of the various matters in the agenda for this meeting.

There were no declarations of interests from any members present in respect of the following item on the agenda.

The commencement of the meeting was delayed until 10.00am to give the parties time to resolve an issue over the Supplementary Information submitted by the Licensee.

Prior to hearing the application for review the Chairman outlined the procedure for the hearing (Minute 4) and confirmed that a permanent record of the proceedings would be kept. The Chairman asked if anyone wished to withdraw their representations. No representations were withdrawn.

The Licensing Sub-Committee is requested to determine an application for a review of a Premises Licence in respect of:

Clapps Convenience Store, 236 Seafront, Hayling Island

Appendices:

Report of Licensing Officer (1 – 6)

Notice of Hearing (7 – 8)

Application for Review (9 – 16)

Representation from the Police (17 – 20)

Representation from the Licence Holder (21 – 28)

Information to Accompany Notice (29 – 30)

Relevant Regulations Relating to Hearings (31 – 32)

Hearings Procedure (33 – 34)

Additional Information Supplied by Trading Standards (35 – 48)

The Sub-Committee considered an application by the Hampshire Trading Standards Service for review of a Premises Licence in respect of Clapps Convenience Store, 236 Seafront, Hayling Island.

The following documents were submitted to the Sub-Committee:

(i)             Report of Licensing Officer;

(ii)             Notice of Hearing;

(iii)            Application for Review;

(iv)            Representation from the Police;

(v)             Representation from the Licence Holder;

(vi)            Information to Accompany Notice;

(vii)           Relevant Regulations Relating to Hearings;

(viii)          Hearings Procedure;

(ix)              Additional Information Supplied by Trading Standards.

(x)               Additional Information Supplied by the Licence Holder’s Representative

(xi)              Supplementary Information Supplied by Trading Standards; and

(xii)             Supplementary Information Supplied by the Licence Holder’s Representative

All parties agreed to Mrs S Bryan, Senior Lawyer (Contentious), accompanying the Sub-Committee when it retired to determine the hearings for observation purposes only. 

Mr Worrall confirmed that he wished to address the hearing on behalf of Hampshire County Council Trading Standards.

Mrs Chestnutt confirmed that he wished to address the meeting on behalf of the Licensee.

PC Barron confirmed that he wished to address the meeting on behalf of Hampshire Constabulary.

The Licence Holder’s Representative withdrew the further information circulated to the Sub-Committee on 14 July 2014 and asked that the Sub-Committee did not take this further information into account.

The Licensing Officer presented his report to the Sub-Committee and gave an outline of the application and the representations received.

Both parties were invited to make representations to the Sub-Committee in relation to the application.  Both parties responded to members’ questions and were given an opportunity to ask questions of each other.

The Trading Standards Officer highlighted the following points:

(a)          It was explained that each volunteer who carried out a test purchase was specifically chosen to look 16 years of age and was provided with appropriate training;

(b)          The Trading Standards Officer requested that the Sub-Committee disregard the revised recommendation referred to in (xi) above and recommended that the licence be revoked as stated in the original application.

In response to questions raised by members of the Sub Committee and Mrs Chestnutt, Mr Worrall and PC Barron advised that:

(a)          A Trading Standards Officer accompanied every volunteer who carried out a test purchase;

(b)          Volunteers were recruited through a combination of word of mouth, contact from local colleges and through the Trading Standards and Hampshire County Council websites; and

(c)          Every off licence on Hayling Island had been tested within the past 18 months.

Mrs Chestnutt highlighted the following points:

(a)          The volunteer who carried out the test purchase was a mature 16 year old;

(b)          A combination of mystery shopping and inspections would provide a fairer system of assessing how a premises was performing rather than the test purchase system;

(c)          Any suspension of the licence would not be appropriate as there had been no evidence of under age sales outside of the test purchases;

(d)          The premises had received a lack of support from Trading Standards;

(e)          Four members of staff were now trained to ALPH level and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.