Agenda and draft minutes

There were no disclosures by Members or Officers.

There were no disclosures of lobbying.

RESOLVED: That the Items on the Agenda be taken in public as proposed.

The Chairman requested those present to introduce themselves, explained the procedures and Members confirmed that they had read all the papers.

Mrs Bolas explained that the hearing was regarding an application dated 15, November 2012,for a licence for the supply of alcohol at Martins, 327 Boxley Road, Maidstone from 6am to 11pm daily.  A representation had been received in time from Dr Worden.  Mrs Bolas explained that the statutory position can only take account of representations made on the grounds of the four licensing objectives, public health and need were not within those.

Mr Crank, representing the applicant, stated in his opening remarks that Martin McColl Ltd (the applicant) wish to increase the convenience element within the store with further chilled food and a small range of alcohol.  The original application was submitted to cover the current operating position of the premises, however they do plan to shut the shop by 10pm and therefore the licence is only required from 6am to 10pm.  Mr Crank noted there had been no objection from the Police. 

He stated that the applicants were very experienced and had over 700 premises with licences.  Procedures are in place to observe the licensing principles – Crime & Disorder – CCTV will be monitored in the store and linked to Head Office with cameras at the entrance, till points, alcohol display and other areas of the shop.  They will operate a ‘Challenge 25’ policy and all staff will be trained in this policy.  They have interactive tills so that when an age restricted product is scanned, the staff Member has to indicate whether the individual looks under or over 25, if under 25, ID shown and recorded on the till that ID has been seen and a permanent record is kept.  The applicant employs an external company that carries out spot checks on their stores and staff are advised that selling alcohol to under age is “gross misconduct”.  The Manager of the store is a personal licence holder and two other members of staff have passed the personal licence holder test, although they are not personal licence holders yet.  Training is refreshed on a quarterly basis and the premises has internal shuttering.

Mr Crank mentioned that some elements of the objection were on public health grounds and as this is not within the licensing objectives, he felt they were not valid.

He also stated that the applicant would be happy for the terms in the operating plan to be included as conditions on the licence.

The objector was then given the opportunity to ask questions of the applicant.  The applicant responded that alcohol for sale would be a limited range of wines, beers and spirits and the smallest quantity to be sold would be 1 can of beer. It was accepted that the premises could potentially trade until 10 pm but it would usually be to 8pm, the nearby fish and chip shop opens until 9pm and the off licence to 10pm.

Members were then given the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

10.00 am to 11.02 am.