(i)

considered the report from the Director for Place;

(ii)

(iii)

heard representations from Environmental Health and Devon & Cornwall Police as detailed below under the relevant licensing objective;

heard representations from the applicant that:

• They already have safety precautions and noise containment in the outside area;
• There is a capacity of 30 people in the outside area and this will not change;
• All drinks must be in polycarbonate glasses;
• A door supervisor is permanently stationed in the area controlling capacity and noise levels;
• Music is turned off at 11pm;
• There is a high fence surrounding the garden to separate the area from passers by;
• A smoking shelter covers half the area and aids in containing the sound;
• CCTV covers the entire area and the monitor is visible from the bar;
• Other premises in the area permit drinkers in their outside area until later at night and with higher capacities;
• They provided two photos of the outside area and a summary of the other licensed premises within the area and their allowances for outside drinking;

(iv)

considered representations under the licensing objectives as follows:

a)

Prevention of Public Nuisance –

A representative of Environmental Health said the premise is located in a cumulative impact area and there is potential for the application to impact negatively on the surrounding area.

There are a large number of licensed premises in North Hill and surrounding areas which predominantly focus on the student market.  This attracts high volumes of people to the area until the early hours of the morning with the effect of increasing the general noise from people that are under the influence of alcohol, such as shouting and swearing and causing incidences of anti-social behaviour.

They said there is the potential for persons to be encouraged to stay outside the premises for longer and the limit of 30 persons is likely to be achieved for longer periods of time and the potential noise issues could increase.

They say it is highly unlikely the smoking shelter will mitigate any noise breakout from the premises and the applicant has not provided any details.

b)

Prevention of Crime and Disorder –

A representative of Devon & Cornwall Police presented evidence to show an increase in crime levels within the cumulative impact area.  The evidence showed that the majority of crime in this area including the increase occurs between 10pm and 6am and cannot be attributed to individual premises.

Statistics were provided by the Police of the recorded offences between 01.05.12 to 31.10.12 and 01.05.11 to 31.10.11.

They conclude that this research shows there has been an overall increase in violence in the Mutley/Greenbank area from 332 violent offences recorded for the 2011 period to 353 violent offences recorded for the 2012 period.  There has been an increase in the amount of offences that the evening and night time economy (ENTE) violence accounts for the 2012 period.

There has been an increase in the amount of ENTE violent offences that can be attributed to violence with injury.  The number of street offences has increased and North Hill, Mutley Plain and Tavistock Place have experienced the highest number of street offences throughout both periods.

They were concerned how the customers who wanted to use the outside area would be managed and how they would be managed when the capacity of the outside area has been reached to prevent crime and disorder.

They were also concerned that patrons would move to the front and rear of the premises to smoke if the rear area is full and there would then be the potential for these patrons to come into conflict with passers-by.

c)

Protection of Children from Harm –

None

d)

Public Safety –

None