The Committee will appoint a Chair and Vice-Chair for this particular meeting.

The Committee agreed to appoint Councillor Hendy as Chair and Councilllor Stephens as Vice-Chair for this meeting.

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

The Committee having:

a)    Considered the contents of the Variation of Premises Licence Notice Report and written representations submitted to the Licensing Authority;

b)    Heard from the applicant as follows:

i) The applicant, Craft Union Pub Limited, owned 600 premises nationwide and was part of the Stonegate Pub Group which had 4000 pub worldwide and took over the Sir Joshua Reynolds Public House in May 2023, undertaking extensive refurbishment;

ii) The applicant also owned the Post Office Public House, located on the Ridgeway, Plympton. They had liaised exclusively with the police and Plymouth City Council Environmental Health before submitting the application in relation to the Sir Joshua Reynolds Public House;

iii) The application was made with the Post Office Public House in mind, with the intention to reduce the hours at the Post Office Public House, if the increase of hours was granted. The Post Office Public House was approximately 1 minute walk from the Sir Joshua Reynolds Public House. The application was made to align the conditions in both public houses and alleviate the bottle neck at the end of the Ridgeway. It would also bring it into line with the Wetherspoons on the Ridgeway and reduce the strain on the Post Office Public House which was a smaller venue;

iv) The application in regard to the Post Office Public House could be done by minor variation, which would only take a couple of weeks. This would mean there was no overall increase in hours on the Ridgeway;

v) Live music at the Sir Joshua Reynolds Public House did not go beyond 2300 hours and occurred once a week. It attracted 60-100 people on a Saturday;

vi) The comprehensive list of new, robust conditions were agreed with the Responsible Authorities;

vii) A key issue that had been raised was the behaviour of people away from the Sir Joshua Reynolds Public House, and the applicant would agree a written dispersal policy to show how they would manage this;

ix) There would be total sound containment between 2300 hours and 0800 hours and late-night music would be strictly policed by the applicant. The staff would close the doors and windows when entertainment was taking place, and noise checks were taken outside with a meter;

x) There was no mechanical ventilation beyond opening windows and doors and the applicant advised there would not be music on when it would be necessary to have the doors/windows open and would end entertainment if they could not maintain a safe level of ventilation;

xi) The applicant had put in additional resource, including two security staff on the front door and one at the rear garden;

xii) There had been no representations from Responsible Authorities and no complaints made to the applicant since they had taken over. The police were overstretched in the area and so would have objected if there were issues with the application;

xiii) A number of issues contained in the representations pre-dated the applicant’s ownership of the Sir Joshua Reynolds Public House  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.