Agenda, decisions and minutes

To elect a Chairman for one meeting only.

Nominations for a Chairman for the Licensing Sub Committee were sought and it was

Resolved:

To elect Councillor Desna Allen as Chairman for this meeting only.

The Chairman will explain the attached procedure for the members of the public present.

The Chairman explained the procedure to be followed at the hearing, as contained within the ‘Wiltshire Licensing Committee Procedural Rules for the Hearing of Licensing Act 2003 Applications’ (pages 1-7 of the agenda refer).  All those present at the meeting introduced themselves.

To receive any declarations of personal or prejudicial interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

Councillor Caswill, Member for Chippenham, Monkton, declared a personal interest as a family member occasionally works as a Doorman at another Chippenham establishment.

To consider and determine an application for a review of a Premises License in respect of Karma, 17a Station Hill, Chippenham, Wiltshire.

Please note that the supporting evidence (Appendices 1(b) and 1(c)) due to the large volume of this paperwork has not been circulated with this Agenda. A copy of the submission is available for viewing upon request by Members of the Public during normal opening hours at the Wiltshire Council Monkton Park Offices in Chippenham.

Application for the Review of a Premises Licence; Karma 17a Station Hill, Chippenham, Wiltshire.

The Licensing Officer introduced her report to the Committee.

The application for the Review was presented by Mr R Light.  At the start of the hearing Mr Holley, representing the Premises Licence holder, agreed to accept the police incident reports as presented at items 1 - 100 in the Appendices to the police evidence.   As well as referring to the written submissions, Mr Light called evidence from witnesses.

The key points of the oral evidence presented by the Police were:-

• Concerns were raised regarding the promotion, of what was considered to be irresponsible drinks promotions, selling alcohol very cheaply, in particular the sale of shots of spirits for 50p and promotion of ‘Black Rat’ cider.

• Within the Facebook, social networking site pages, the Club appeared to encourage excessive drink and, in relation to some of the entries, possible violence and homophobic behaviour.

• The entries on the Club’s Facebook page also indicated that there had been underage drinking in the club, detailing that IDs were not being checked. 

• In February 2010 confusion had arisen over the use of the Club for under 18’s events, resulting in a formal warning. 

• Whilst there had been regular discussions with the Club about improving the levels of disorder, there were still a number of issues that needed to be resolved.  Levels of crime and disorder linked to the premises had initially dropped but had recently increased again.

• There were concerns that the maximum capacity of the club may have been exceeded on occasions and that the systems for monitoring the number of people in the Club did not seem to be robust.

• Concerns were raised that door staff were not sufficiently identifiable to members of the public, especially those who worked at the entrance to the club.

• Whilst representatives of Karma had attended meetings of Pubwatch, they had not been put forward sufficient numbers of persons to be banned, given the number of incidents that had occurred at the Club. Only 4 of the current banned list of 15 had originated from Karma.

• There was no visible leadership by the Designated Premises Supervisor.  The majority of staff there did not appear to know what his role was.  This was compounded by a general inconsistency in management.

• It was strongly felt that there was a need for a long-term sustained improvement in behaviour and a change of culture surrounding the club.

Cllr Caswill, as local member for the area drew the panels attention the Premises Licence, Annex A, Prevention of Public Nuisance (page 21 of the Agenda refers). Cllr Caswill detailed the numerous complaints he had received about the consistent volume of the noise and the ‘thumping’ from local residents.  These issues had also been reiterated in the representations from other Interested Parties.  He stressed that the Club should do more to reduce the problems caused by excessive noise, and that temporary closure would please the local people.

 Mr Holley, on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.