To receive apologies for absence.

To receive any details of Members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the committee.

There were no substitutes present at the meeting.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the agenda.

To consider an application for a review of a premises licence in respect of: ‘mila, 102-104 Belmont Road, Hereford, HR2 7JS called by Herefordshire Council as the licensing authority.

Members of the licensing sub committee of the council’s planning and regulatory committee considered the above application, full details of which appeared before the Members in their agenda and the background papers.

Prior to making their decision the members heard from Emma Bowell, technical licensing officer, Fred Spriggs, licensing authority and Jim Mooney, West Mercia Police.   Members also heard from the premises licence holder consultant, June Clarke, and the premises licence holder, Hardi Mohammed.    

The committee carefully considered all the representations made, the statutory framework as well as having regard to the statutory guidance and Herefordshire council’s licensing policy.

Fred Spriggs presented the licensing authority’s reasons for calling for a review of the premises.    The history of the premises was that it had been a Polish convenience store since 2005.   There had been an expedited review of the premises licence on 29 November 2016, with a full review 16 December 2016 where the licence was revoked.   A new premises licence was granted to Mr Hardi Mohammed on 10 April 2017 as the new owner of the business.    At that time new conditions were agreed by all the responsible authorities and the premises licence holder’s agent.    The new conditions related to CCTV; an incident log, staff training log, immigration log book; prominent clear and legible signage in not less than 32 font be displayed in relation to noise and exiting the premises; refusals register; challenge 25 policy; a personal licence holder to be on the premises at all times; and there should be a 75% unobstructed view into the premises. 

On 25 April, it had been noticed that condition 6 (unobstructed view) was not being complied with.    Mr Spriggs wrote to Mr Mohammed to inform him that he was not complying with condition 6.   The police had visited the premises on 12 May and informed the licensing authority that condition 6 was not being complied with and had provided photographic evidence.   The police also reported on 17 June that the condition was still not being complied with.     Mr Spriggs visited the premises again on 29 June and found that conditions 1-3 and 5-9 were not being complied with and had subsequently written to Mr Mohammed to inform him of these breaches.   The police had visited the premises on 30 July in order to view the CCTV footage in relation to shoplifting crime which had been reported by Mr Mohammed.   The member of staff in the shop could not operate the CCTV system.   On 11 August, Mr Spriggs visited the premises and had explained to Mr Mohammed that he was still in breach of some the premises licence conditions, in particular the unobstructed view; incident log and signage.   At this point, the licensing authority took the decision to launch a review rather than to prosecute through the court.   Mr Spriggs advised the committee that they may wish to consider removing condition 5 in relation to an immigration log book as the Immigration Act made this a mandatory requirement and was therefore  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.