The Committee and Scrutiny Support Officer confirmed that the Sub-Committee would comprise of Councillors Bolton, Derbyshire and Rogers.

                   The Sub-Committee was asked to elect a Chair for the Hearing.

                   RESOLVED –

                   that Councillor Derbyshire be elected Chair for this Hearing.

Councillor Rogers declared that he was a registered supporter of the football club and in the 1960s was given 41 shares in the club.  He believed he still had about 23, but these were the old style shares and may now be invalid as the new company had floated their new shares. 

Report of the Head of Community and Customer Services.

This report asks the Sub-Committee to consider an application for a new premises licence following the receipt of representations.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Head of Community and Customer Services setting out details of an application for a new licence for Watford Football Club Stadium. 

The Licensing Officer introduced the report. It was noted that the application was for a new premises licence at Watford Football Club Stadium, Vicarage Road, Watford, WD18 0ER to allow the sale of alcohol for consumption on and off the premises between 10:00hrs and 00:00hrs Monday to Thursday, between 10:00hrs and 01:00hrs on Fridays and Saturdays and 10:00hrs and 23:00hrs on Sundays.  Late night refreshment was applied for between 23:00 hrs and 00:30hrs on Mondays to Thursdays and 23:00hrs to 01:30hrs on Fridays and Saturdays. Regulated Entertainment was also applied for between 10:00 and 00:30 on Mondays to Thursdays, between 10:00hrs and 01:30hrs on Fridays and Saturdays and between 10:00hrs and 23:00hrs on Sundays.  These hours are no different to the current licence, but cover the entire stadium.  It was due to the scope of the change, that a new licence was applied for rather than a variation.  It was noted by the Committee that boxing and wrestling were new licensable activities for the licence.

The Licensing Officer stated that there had been one representation from a local resident.  However, since the initial representation had been received, there had been no further contact from the interested party.  This was despite the Licensing Officer having made several attempts to contact the resident, by letter and by visiting the address.  The Licensing Officer reminded the Sub-Committee that there was no requirement for the interested party to attend the hearing. 

The Licensing Officer pointed out that this application fell within the scope of LP2 of the Council’s Statement of Licensing Policy. 

At this stage in the meeting Mr Evans offered the Sub-Committee copies of the latest and up to date plans of the stadium.  The Committee viewed these copies. 

The Sub-Committee took the opportunity to question the Licensing Officer and clarify aspects of his report. Councillor Derbyshire asked about the inconsistency between the hours in condition 2a contained in Annex 2 of the current licence (that the music will be turned off when the sale of alcohol ends) and the proposed hours on page 7 of the report, that showed regulated entertainment finishing 30 minutes after the end of alcohol sales. 

The Licensing Officer stated that should the application be granted, condition 2a would not be included. 

The Applicant was given the opportunity to put questions to the Licensing Officer. However he did not wish to ask any questions, but thanked the Council Officers for their support and advice in the new application process in order to improve the facilities at the stadium. 

The Licensing Officer explained that a licence variation was not suitable due to the considerable scale of the changes.  It had been suggested that the new application should include the whole stadium to reduce the need for further hearings if, for example, a bar was moved with the stadium and representations were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.