Agenda and minutes

Councillor Steeds was elected chair of the meeting.

The owner wished to convert this premises from a clothes shop to a food outlet. An application for a premises licence had been submitted by Masood Mahmood which     sought permission for the sale of alcohol between 10.00am and 10.30pm on Mondays to Sundays.

Geoff Lewis, who lived and worked next door to the premises, had objected to the application on the following grounds:

·                potential nuisances caused by noise and unpleasant odours;

·                the fact that the current planning permission (granted on appeal) for change of use of the premises from A1 (retail) to mixed use A3/A5 (restaurants and cafes/takeaways) was conditional upon the opening hours being limited to between 08:00 and 17:00 each day;

·                the proposed location of the refuse bins presented a potential fire risk, as supported by a witness statement from an independent fire safety consultant (Phil Barry of CWB Fire Safety).

The above mentioned planning permission was based on the refuse bins being stored in the service road to the rear of the premises. However, the owner of the service road had since refused permission for the road to be used for this purpose, hence the need for the premises licence applicant to secure an alternative location.

Following the publication of the agenda pack, the following additional documents had been circulated to the Sub-Committee members:

(i)      further representations from Masood Mahmood in support of his licence application – e-mailed on 16^th July at 14:22

(ii)      an A3 site plan regarding fire safety / bin storage issues from Steve Burnett - e-mailed on 20^th July at 14:21

(iii)     evidence to support the ownership of the above mentioned service road –

          e-mailed on 20^th July at 18:18

(iv)    advice from Rob Jordan of Surrey Fire & Rescue (Crew Commander – Business Fire Safety) following his site visit on 20^th July, explaining that, in consultation with Masood Mahmood, he had identified a preferred alternative location for the refuse bins, namely an external brick built storage space which could be converted for this purpose – e-mailed on 20^th July at 17:26.

In light of (iv) above, Steve Burnett had advised that the witness statement from CWB Fire Safety would not be relied upon and that Phil Barry would not be giving evidence.

Ian Garrod introduced his report.

Ruben Osie presented the application. He explained that the current business was no longer commercially viable and that the proposed restaurant would have the added advantage of employing more people. He confirmed that the owner wished to cooperate with the objector and was willing to accept all but two of the requested licence conditions, those two exceptions being:

“12    No fumes or odours shall be emitted from the licensed premises so as to cause a nuisance to any persons living or carrying on business in the area where the premises are situated.

13      No noise generated on the premises, or by its associated plant or equipment, shall emanate from the premises nor vibration be transmitted through the structure of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.