(i)

considered the report from the Director for Community Services;

(ii)

considered all written representations;

(iii)

heard from the applicant’s representative that –

the application for review related to the licensing objectives of the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance;

the premises were located on a busy road with mixed commercial and residential use and was in a designated conservation area;

the most prominent acoustic feature of the night time environment was from live music on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings;

the premise was old and was not designed to contain the volume of noise created by live music, entertainment, karaoke and recorded music;

a particular aggravating feature was caused by penetrative bass and vibration creating structure born noise transmission;

noise breakout into the street was affecting residents and continuing to disturb the nature and character of the area;

during routine ‘out of hours’ noise monitoring officers had witnessed several breaches of licence conditions and noise amounting to a nuisance and complaints had been received regarding unlicensed activity taking place;

support had been provided to the premises however attempts to resolve the complaint through discussion with the management had little success;

officers had been subjected to threatening and intimidating behaviour on two separate occasions from patrons of the premise who were uncontrolled by responsible persons at the premises indicating a significant fault in management controls;

the department had been made aware of alleged intimidation and victimisation directed against one complainant;

a total of five complaints had been received raising concerns over the growing noise disturbance in the vicinity emanating from these premises;

having worked with two Designated Persons Supervisors (DPS) since June 2009 had concluded that live music entertainment was not suited to the premises and the business had failed to act in a responsible and approachable manner and as a result Reds had consistently failed to promote the licensing objectives to prevent public nuisance and to prevent crime and disorder.

(iv)

heard from a representative of Devon & Cornwall Police that –

on 13 August 2009 it was reported by a member of the public that he had been threatened by a male from Reds Bar as he walked into the courtyard of his property. The DPS was standing outside the premise watching and took no action to prevent this incident;

on 15 August 2009 the reporting person was intimidated again by the same person. He stated that he had observed drinks being sold until 2am and patrons were shouting and fighting outside the premises;

on 15 August 2009 employees of Plymouth City Council were intimidated by customers of the premise and had felt threatened while the management and DPS had taken no action to assist;

on 17 August 2009 the complainant reported damage to his vehicle;

from police records seven complaints of anti social/rowdy/nuisance behaviour had been received since 17 August 2009.

(v)

heard from interested parties that –

there was a high level of music generated from Reds Bar on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings;

residents in the flats that found the noise level intolerable and residents were unable to read, watch television or sleep;

on 7 December 2009 a local landlord visited the premises regarding the noise and disorder problem and asked to speak with the manager. It was impossible to speak inside the venue and they had to speak in the street. The manager refused to lower the volume on the grounds that he would lose clients and money. He did agree to stop the band music at 11pm, however a loud ‘thump thump’ continued until 12.30am;

tenants, of the landlord, had given notice to vacate their flats due to the noise disturbance at night;

late night trespassers used the Ebrington Street alleyway as a public convenience and for needle disposal and trespassers entered the landlords garden causing distress to his residents;

there had been threats of violence, anti-social behaviour and criminal damage to property;

there had been regular abuses of the conditions on the licence.

(vi)

heard from the premises licence holders legal representative and his witness that –

he did not seek to defend the suffering of the residents and he would try to address all the issues raised;

the premises were not currently trading and the freehold of the premises was to be sold;

it was proposed that live music be removed as a licensable activity and a number of conditions be added to the premises licence to resolve residents concerns regarding loud music and anti social behaviour.

(1)

exclude the following licensable activities –

performance of live music (indoors);

entertainment of a similar description to that falling within e, f or g (indoors);

provision of facilities for making music (indoors).

(2)

modify the conditions of the licence by removing the following conditions –

Annex 2 conditions imposed by the Environmental Health Representative (1 and 2);

Annex 2 the Prevention of Public Nuisance (1) live music will be staged in the bar only.

(3)

modify the conditions of the licence by adding the following conditions –

all regulated musical entertainment must be controlled by a suitable noise limiting device, which will be set at an appropriate level in consultation with the Environmental Health Department;

a senior member of staff or other authorised person shall monitor the noise levels from a designated monitoring location on the other side of the road to the premises (outside 57 Ebrington Street);

noise emanating from the premises shall not be clearly audible one metre from the façade of the designated monitoring location;

customers will not be permitted to smoke of drink outside the front of the premises.

(4)

Remove the DPS.