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 variation of a premises licence in respect of Munchies, 59 Commercial Road, Hereford. HR1 2BP.

Members of the licensing subcommittee 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, licensing technical officer, Sergeant Duncan Reynolds, West Mercia Police and Jim Mooney, West Mercia Police.  Members also heard from premises licence holder, Bahroz Saeed (of Hereford Munchies Limited), previous premises licence holder, Ardalan Ghafour and premises licence holder’s solicitor, Mr Abhi Mohindru. 

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

Sergeant Duncan Reynolds representing West Mercia Police set out the police objection to the variation of the licence for Munchies.     Neither the premises licence holder’s solicitor nor the premises licence holder had been in contact with the police to discuss the concerns raised.    Munchies is located in Commercial Road and is in the hub of the late night economy area of Hereford city centre and within the council’s special cumulative impact policy.    The special cumulative impact policy has been in effect since 2008 and is still relevant.   The view of the police was that to grant the additional hours would undermine the crime and disorder licensing objective and could potentially lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour.    The premises licence holder has failed to show how they will further promote the licensing objective and how by granting the licence the special cumulative impact policy would not be undermined.       The premises were located next to the main taxi rank for the city centre which operates throughout the evening and night.    This has the impact of additional people moving through area, either using the taxis or visiting fast food outlets.    

During 2017, there had a number of incidents of non-compliance with the premises licence.     There had been disorder incidents on 11 February, 9 April and 9 July,    With regard to the incident on 11 February, police officers had to use force to disperse people fighting.   Following this incident the police had requested CCTV footage and on the first request had been refused and on the second request there had been no one available to download the footage.   This had resulted in a warning letter from the authority.  

The police acknowledged that there had been infrequent visits to the premises due to the current demand on policing and the reduction in police resources.   However, the police had visited on 17 July to request the door staff register and incident records and it was found that no records were kept.    The police had then visited again on 22 July and again asked to view the door staff register.   On this occasion, the premises licence holder had indicated that he had updated his record keeping and had misunderstood the request from police on 17 July.    The police’s concern was that the premise licence holder was not able to effectively promote the licensing objectives.      

The police were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.