Agenda and minutes

Licensing Sub Committee - Tuesday 4 April 2017 10.00 am

Venue: Council House, Plymouth

Contact: Helen Rickman Email: helen.rickman@plymouth.gov.uk

Items

No.

Item

Appointment of Chair and Vice-Chair

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

Minutes:

Agreed that Councillor Dr Mahony was appointed as Chair and Councillor Rennie was appointed as Vice Chair.

Declarations of Interest

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

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest in accordance with the code of conduct.

Chair's Urgent Business

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

Minutes:

There were no items of Chair’s Urgent Business.

Application for Review of Premises Licence for Plymstock Inn, 88 Church Road, Plymstock, Plymouth PDF 3 MB

The Interim Director of Public Health will submit a report in relation to the application for Review of Premises Licence for Plymstock Inn, 88 Church Road, Plymstock, Plymouth under Section 384 of the Licensing Act 2003.

Additional documents:

Restricted enclosure 4 View the reasons why document 4./2 is restricted
Restricted enclosure 5 View the reasons why document 4./3 is restricted
Restricted enclosure 6 View the reasons why document 4./4 is restricted
Restricted enclosure 7 View the reasons why document 4./5 is restricted

Minutes:

The Committee:

1.	considered the report from the Director for Public Health;
2.	heard from Environmental Health, considered their written representations and heard live evidence from a local resident. A summary of the same is recorded below:
	·	the premises are surrounded by residential properties and noise disturbance is arising from live music, karaoke and other entertainment;
	·	there have been on and off complaints of noise from the premises since around 2008 and the complaints have depended upon the type of music and the management of the premises;
	·	Environmental Health has been working with the current management since October 2015 to try and address the noise nuisance, however noise levels continue to cause disturbance, particularly with regards to live music events at weekends. The outside area/beer garden also causes problems particularly after 1am;
	·	an abatement notice was served in September 2016 and there has been no considerable improvement since then;
	·	Mr James Wright became the PLH on the 9 October 2015 and Mr Peter Wright is the Designated Premises Supervisor;
	·	the premises are currently licensed to have live and recorded music: Sun - Wed 8am - midnight Thu - Sat 8am - 1am
	·	live music is unregulated between 8am - 11pm but due to the problems experienced at the premises this needs to be brought within the control of the Licensing Act 2003;
	·	there are conditions on the licence at B1-5 which require the management to take actions during entertainment however at present the existing conditions on the licence are only enforceable after midnight;
	·	Environmental Health says that these are not suitable to protect local residents from being disturbed by live and recorded music and patrons using the outside area. Environmental Health outlined the contact that they had made with the PLH (Premises Licence Holder) to try and find a way forward. There had been telephone calls to explain the problems, letters written and an agreed action plan drawn up in agreement with the PLH. The action plan had never been signed and returned by him. When officer’s visited and witnessed problems of noise they had whenever possible, met with the PLH to discuss what needed to be done to address the problems;
	·	during visits officers had noted that the PLH were using an App to try and record decibel levels and had advised the PLH on a few occasions that whilst decibel levels could be recorded, the effectiveness of this depended on the conditions that existed at the time and that subjective assessments were just as important;
	·	a local resident explained the noise problems she had encountered and the personal effect this had had on her and her family situation;
	·	in light of the problems reported Environmental Health recommended that the existing conditions were replaced and that regulated entertainment is restricted;
	·	if the committee was not minded to remove regulated entertainment from the licence then further conditions were suggested as a way of controlling regulated entertainment and that as a result section 177A of the act would not apply to ... view the full minutes text for item 4.

Exempt Business

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Minutes:

There were no items of exempt business.