Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed all those in attendance and introductions were made.  The Chair reminded those present that the meeting was being recorded and would be made available following the meeting via the Council’s website – Click Here to View

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor A. Farina-Childs (Blackwood Local Ward Member) and Mr H. Edwards (local business owner).

There were no declarations of interest made at the beginning or during the course of the meeting.

The Legal Advisor to the Sub Committee outlined the procedure for the meeting, including the order of representations and the opportunities for all parties to ask questions. 

Mr Lee Morgan (Licensing Manager) presented the report and outlined the application submitted by Mr A. Xavier for a new premises licence for Clarence Food and Wine located at 88 High Street, Blackwood.  It was noted that as part of the hours applied for in the initial application, Mr Xavier had sought to permit off-sale of alcohol between the hours of 07.00 – 01.00 Friday & Saturday.  However, following representations received, the applicant subsequently modified his application to Supply of Alcohol (Off Sales only) Monday – Sunday 07.00 – 22.00.  A number of steps had also been volunteered by the applicant as part of the Operating Schedule, to promote the Licensing Objectives, and were set out in the report. 

During the consultation process, representations were received from Gwent Police and Trading Standards who advocated conditions which were accepted by the applicant, and these Responsible Authorities were subsequently satisfied with the applicant’s ability to promote the Licensing Objectives.  Relevant representations were also received from two local ward members, two local residents and a local business owner and full details were appended to the Officer’s report.

It was noted that since the preparation of the report, one local resident (Mr Llewellyn) had withdrawn his representation in view of the above modification.  The other local resident (Mr Bennett) had confirmed he did not wish to attend and his comments were included in the meeting papers for Members’ consideration.  Furthermore, Mr Edwards (local business owner) had given apologies for the meeting but had indicated he would be satisfied with the modified hours.  Councillor Farina-Childs (Blackwood Local Ward Member had also given apologies and it was noted that his concerns would be relayed via the Licensing Manager later in the meeting.

Attention was drawn to the local policy considerations as set out in the report and to the way in which the Sub-Committee would deal with the application.  Members were referred to the recommendation set out in the Licensing Manager’s report, which recommended that the application for a premises licence be granted for off-sales of alcohol between the hours of 07.00 - 22.00 Monday to Sunday, subject to the conditions in the report.

All parties present were afforded the opportunity to ask questions of the Licensing Manager.  A Member asked if the proposed CCTV condition could be strengthened to state that images must be of a good quality in order to clearly identify persons of interest on the footage.  Following discussion, it was confirmed that this could be added to the condition if the Sub Committee were minded to do so, although it was emphasised that the reliability of CCTV imagery also depends on other factors such as camera positioning. 

Representations were then invited from the applicant, Mr Alex Xavier.

Mr Xavier summarised his application and confirmed that high quality 4K resolution CCTV would be installed at the premises,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.