(a)

considered the report from the Director for Public Health;

(b)

heard from the applicant that:

·          

the premises have been licensed for the last 16 years. The current Premises Licence Holder took over a couple of years ago. As far as they are is aware there have been no major incidents at the premises and it is a safe place to be;

·          

they have had a handful of complaints recently with regards to noise from music. These complaints have mainly come from the Hooe and Down Thomas area as the music noise was carrying across the water. The applicant has been in contact with Environmental Health to address these problems. The condition put forward by Environmental Health means there will be a noise reduction between 11pm and 1am so that no music is audible between those times, therefore there shouldn't be any problems for local residents. Environmental Health have said they will do some live monitoring of the music;

·          

they do not want to cause problems for local residents and disturb their sleep;

·          

the applicant has joined the Best Bar None scheme to make sure the business gets support it needs to ensure they comply with the licensing objectives;

·          

live music: there is no intention to use the new hours 7 days a week. The varied licence will just provide flexibility. They usually only have live music on most Sundays and twice a month on a Saturday;

·          

off sales: this is purely required so that they can sell Plymouth Gin from a modified horse box. They have obtained funding from Plymouth Gin to install a Plymouth Gin bar within the premises. The idea is that their customers can try the various offerings of Plymouth Gin and then buy a Plymouth Gin Box or something along those lines. Tourists are the target customers and it will not be priced so that young people could buy it and then go and drink it on a park bench. They will be selling nice bottles of spirits. They do not require such long hours to do this and envisage sales taking place in the afternoon into the evening. They would be happy to have the hours cut accordingly and a cut-off point of 9pm would be acceptable;

·          

they are a business operating in tough times and this has necessitated the variation to the licence. As a lot of people come to events late in the evening, arriving between 9 - 10pm, the variation of hours provides an additional trading period and will make events more cost effective;

·          

the business' customer target is the middle aged group. With this in mind they do not believe their clientele would be causing the anti-social behaviour being complained of or envisaged by local residents. Also, they do not believe that their customers use the fore shore;

·          

most promoted events are ticketed;

·          

their experience is that once the music stops then most people leave the premises;

·          

with regards to litter concerns, when non-glass drinking vessels are used  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

(a)

considered the report from the Director for Public Health;

(b)

heard from the applicant that:

·          

they have been running a dance company for the last 16 years - mainly Latin dance. Up until 3 years ago they used to rent various premises to conduct their lessons however it was decided to buy their own premises as this would be more cost efficient;

·          

three years ago they bought the premises. They operate dance lessons every night between 6pm and 10pm and rent the premises out at the weekend for private parties;

·          

up until now they have been doing this by way of Temporary Event Notices, people would bring their own alcohol and DJs. The applicant believes this is what caused some of the problems complained about as people were bringing in their own cheap alcohol and therefore drinking more than they would if they had to pay for it at the bar. The DJ's they were bringing along caused problems as they were loud and when they had singers, this also caused problems. This is why they will not have live music and now have a noise limiter;

·          

the only reason they want the licence is for these private parties on a Friday and Saturday (and rarely on a Sunday) as they feel it will give them more control over the noise levels and the amount of alcohol that people consume;

·          

they do have their own Latin dance parties once a month, but they don't sell alcohol and don't have a bar. The only reason for the alcohol licence is for the weekend private parties;

·          

in the last 2 years they have had 69 parties including their own monthly Latin dance parties;

·          

there have been no problems reported to the Police;

·          

with regards to the complaints there have been no complaints about the dance class music. This music is not loud as the instructor is also giving instruction and there is certainly no heavy bass;

·          

during the first private party they ever they had complaints and so they immediately ensured the music was turned down straight away. They have always tried to keep the music level down and one bad review on their website sited that the music was too quiet;

·          

they have carried out sound proofing works to the premises to stop any noise egress. This is mainly works to the roof and there are further works to be done;

·          

they have taken sound recordings both at the back, front of his premises and then at the front of the nearest residential property. The recordings were 60dB, 50dB and 40dB respectively. At the front of the residential property as soon as a car went past the dB level rose to 60. They now have a noise limiter. They have set the levels themselves having researched the subject. They had asked Environmental Health what the appropriate level to set it at was but they had advised that there was no set dB level;

·          

they will work with residents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.