To consider an appeal against a decision to refuse a street trading consent application for a site at Unit 19, Lower Road Industrial Estate, Ledbury, HR8 2DJ.

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.

The committee noted the apologies of the applicant who for urgent personal reasons could not attend and further noted that the applicant’s agents were present.  

Prior to making their decision the members heard from:

·         Kevin Price, street trading officer

·         Chris Jenner, head of technical and parking services

·         Ariz Trezins, environmental health officer

·         Sergeant Nicholas Green, West Mercia Police

·         Roman Jerabek, current vendor on the site

·         Dennis Davies, former vendor on the site

·         Richard Barnett, One Licensing, applicant’s agents

·         Paul Jennings, One Licensing, applicant’s agents

The committee noted that the head of technical and parking services had taken the original decision to refuse the application based on the recommendations of the street trading panel and professional advice.    This advice included: 

·         if there were any anti-social behaviour arising from the granting of the application, then this could only be dealt with by the police or the licensing department which would have resource implications for both organisations.  

·         A 3 month trial period was not viable; and

·         Planning permission would be required for the site.  

The environmental health officer’s concerns were primarily about noise nuisance in the evening due to the proximity to a residential area.    Noise in the street was not classed as a statutory nuisance and this would mean that the environmental health department would not be able to take action. 

Sergeant Green outlined the concerns of West Mercia Police which were based on the knowledge and understanding that similar sites attract anti-social behaviour and the proximity to a residential area.     It was noted that the majority of the business on the industrial estate operated standard working hours but one factory did operate a shift pattern and had a canteen and vending machines which served hot and cold snacks.     

The committee heard from Mr Roman Jerabek who was operated a similar business to the applicant on the site and Mr Dennis Davies who had previously operated a similar business.    Both Mr Davies and Mr Jerabek indicated that they had both operated in the same area being requested by the applicant but had had to move location due to traffic problems.    Mr Jerabek also informed the committee that currently he closes his unit at 1500 hrs but in the next year would be moving to a closure time of 1700 hrs which was already included on his licence.

The committee then heard from the applicant’s agents who indicated:

·         That there were no historical crime issues in relation to the site;

·         The applicant would be using electricity from the car wash business on the site so there would be no generator noise

·         That whilst the site would not be a busy location, the applicant wished to proceed.

·         The applicant had offered CCTV as a condition and was willing to work with the police in connection with anti-social behaviour.  

·         That the applicant would have no jurisdiction over customers sitting in their cars to eat the snacks purchased.

·         There would be momentary issues of car exhaust noise which could potentially affect residents.

·         The applicant was willing to change the licensed hours from 2300 hrs to 2200 hrs and to reduce the length of any trial period.

·         It is anticipated that customers will be from Ledbury residents.

RESOLVED

That the application should be granted subject to following conditions:

Duration of licence:              9 months

Hours of operation:  1600 hrs to 2230 hrs

CCTV to be provided of evidential quality which would have a 28 days storage capability.  The CCTV footage to be available to any police or council officer on request.  

In addition, the street trading consent standard condition at 4.8 to be amended to add “litter will be picked up which is 25 metres in every direction from the site of the unit.”

The meeting adjourned at 1105 hrs.