The Committee and Scrutiny Support Officer confirmed that the Sub-Committee would comprise Councillors Derbyshire, Jeffree and Meerabux.

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

RESOLVED –

that Councillor Derbyshirebe elected Chair for this Hearing.

There were no disclosures of interest.

This report asks the Sub-Committee to consider an application to vary the licence at the above premises 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 to vary the premises licence at the above premises and also of the representations received.  

The Licensing Officer introduced the report.  She outlined the proposed amendments to the hours for various licensable activities.  Three representations had been received from interested parties on the basis of public nuisance.  She advised that the applicant wished to remove a condition which prevented customers from taking food or drink into the smoking area.  In addition, the application also sought to amend a condition which only allowed those over 25 to be in the premises after 20.00. If approved, the age limit would be reduced to over 21s after 20.00. The applicant had agreed to the conditions suggested by Environmental Health.  She underlined that only the variation applied for was subject to the Sub-Committee’s determination.

The Chair noted that in paragraph 3.2 of the report the premises had been defined as a bar/other entertainment venue and he asked how this definition had been determined.  The Licensing Officer said this had been the decision of a previous Licensing Sub-Committee and suggested the applicant be asked for comment on this.

In response to a question from the Head of Democracy and Governance, the Licensing Officer confirmed that on page 13 of the agenda there was the proposed plan of the premises and page 15 showed the plan attached to the original licence.

The Chair invited to the applicant, Mr Denis Cook, to present his application.

Mr Cook explained that he had previously run a different premises in Watford and he had wanted to open a more adult and mature venue to enhance the town centre offer.  He explained that he could not give the technical reasons for the premises’ definition.

He had consulted with Licensing and Police when applying for his original licence for the Flamingo.  The previous operators of the venue had had a licence until 0300 but he had only applied for 0200.  As a resident of the town, he felt this was the correct decision.  The Police had suggested at the time that if the venue was well-run he could apply to vary his licence in future.  He underlined that he had operated the venue well and prior to this variation had consulted with Licensing, the Police and councillors. 

He had spoken to Mr Young, one of the interested parties, about the application and he would continue to work with and respect the residents.  He referred to the letter from Mr T White and indicated that Mr White had never been to speak to staff about his concerns.  He reported that every week he and the venue manager, Mr Higgins, walked to Faircross House to check the noise levels from the venue.  There was little noise from the venue audible from there. He added that a ward councillor had spoken to three local residents to ask for their feedback on the venue and they had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.