Agenda and minutes

LSC.01/16      

RESOLVED

That Cllr May be appointed Chairman for the duration of the meeting.

Members are invited to declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests, including the nature and extent of such interests; they may have in any items to be considered at this meeting;

LSC.02/16      

Members and officers were invited to declare any interests in the items of business to be considered during the course of the meeting.  These were recorded as follows:

Cllr D W May declared a personal interest in agenda item 4: ‘Application for a New Premises Licence for Morrisons Petrol Filling Station, Totnes’ (Minute LSC.03/16 below refers) by virtue of owning a garage and remained in the meeting and took part in the debate and vote thereon.  For clarity, Cllr May informed those present that his garage was for repairs only and did not sell any fuel.

LSC.03/16 

The Sub-Committee considered a report that sought to determine an application for a new Premises Licence at Morrisons Petrol Filling Station, Totnes TQ9 5JR.

The Licensing Specialist introduced the report and outlined the details of the application as stated in the application form at Appendix A of the presented agenda report.  In particular, the Licensing Specialist advised that the application sought approval for the sale of alcohol for consumption off the premises to be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and for the provision of late night refreshments Monday to Sunday from 23:00 to 05:00.

1.         Address by the Applicant’s representative

The representative outlined the rationale behind the application and, in so doing, made particular reference to:

-     the reputation of Morrisons.  Despite having over 11 million customer transactions each week, the representatives stressed that the organisation had never been prosecuted in accordance with any offence relating to the Licensing Act 2003.  Furthermore, Morrisons had never seen a review into an existing licence being invoked by any local authority;

-     the proposed operating hours.  The Sub-Committee was informed that, at this stage, the organisation was proposing to operate from 6.00am to midnight.  In addition, the application was only seeking provision to open ‘24/7’ to prevent Morrisons from having to submit an additional application in the event that the organisation should wish to increase its operating hours;

-     the planning application.  It was noted that a planning application had also been submitted to the local authority that sought to almost double in size the filling station store.  As a consequence, the organisation was projecting that customer footfall for convenient use would almost double whereas fuel sales would remain fairly constant;

-     the store plans being well designed.  In highlighting the proposed layout, the representatives confirmed that full CCTV provision would be in place.  Whilst not a significant part of the business, alcohol sales were nonetheless important and assurances were given that spirits would only be available from behind the sales counter;

-     members of staff.  When questioned, the representatives confirmed that there would never be fewer than two members of staff on site during operating hours, with at least one of these being a personal licence holder.  Furthermore, all staff members undertook a rigorous training programme and the organisation had adopted the ‘Challenge 25’ policy, the electronic refusal register and till prompts;

-     the objections raised.  To offset the objections and concerns raised, the representatives highlighted that:

o  there had been no anti-social behaviour related complaints ever raised at this site;

o  there was no evidence to suggest that by being able to drive to the site would lead to an increase in drink driving;

o  a condition would be imposed whereby the sale of individual cans of alcohol would not be allowed;

o  alcohol would be displayed in the full view of the tills;

o  subject to inclusion of the additional conditions, the Police had raised no objections;

o  the organisation had a policy whereby  ...  view the full minutes text for item LSC.3/16