The Senior Democratic Services Officer confirmed that the sub-committee would comprise Councillors Grimston, G Saffery and Stanton.

The sub-committee was asked to elect a Chair for the hearing.

RESOLVED –

that Councillor G Saffery be elected Chair for this hearing.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The Chair welcomed all parties to the hearing, made introductions and explained the procedure to be followed.

The Senior Licensing Officer confirmed that all parties expected were present. There were two preliminary matters for members’ attention:

·          The representation which had been received from Mr Norbert Hunyadi, Appendix 3A, had been withdrawn and should be disregarded.

·          Additional documentation from Mrs Robinson had been received and circulated to all parties. It was confirmed that these had been received. 

Introduction to the application

The sub-committee received a report of the Head of Community Protection outlining an application for a new premises licence for 3 King Street, Watford.

The Senior Licensing Officer introduced the report. The premises was located just outside the town centre. Two representations had been received from residents living in the flats above the premises which related to the prevention of public nuisance, the prevention of crime and disorder and public safety.

There was one representation (appendix 3B) which had not been withdrawn, from Mr and Mrs Omar, who would not be attending. Their relevant comments needed to be considered in their absence. No representations had been received from responsible authorities but conditions had been agreed with the Police and Environmental Health.  The hours had also been amended and the request to provide live and recorded music had been withdrawn since the original application was made. The objectors had been made aware of these changes.  While no formal mediation meeting had taken place, officers had acted as intermediaries between parties.

There were no questions from the committee, the Interim Head of Legal Services, the applicant or the interested party.

Address by Interested Party

Mrs Gloria Robinson introduced her representation. She noted that it was a very busy part of Watford and the changes to the roads meant that King Street saw more traffic than it used to. Children and young people congregated at McDonalds which was in the immediate vicinity. Additionally, there were often a large number of delivery drivers in close proximity to the premises. There was often insufficient space for pedestrians due to the delivery drivers, queues for local restaurants and parking issues.

She outlined further factors which impacted the busyness of the local area including the taxi rank, the main entrance to the shopping centre, local bus stops and deliveries to other premises. The area was always busy. She underlined that she enjoyed having people around but the increased visitors to the area would affect many people. It would not be possible for the premises to manage the behaviour of customers once they had left the premises.

She had concerns about the premises having live music and the impact it would have on local residents, including young children, late into the evening. It would bring no benefit to the locality and she was concerned about the additional noise. It was not possible to adjust the volume of live music.

Turning to the access to the flats, Mrs Robinson noted that it was difficult for residents to access the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.