Agenda, decisions and minutes

To elect a Chairman for the meeting of the Sub Committee.

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

Resolved:

To elect Councillor Trevor Carbinas Chairman for this meeting only.

To receive any apologies for absence and to note any substitutions.

There were no apologies.

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 5 – 12  of the Agenda refers).

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

To consider and determine an application for a variation of a Premises Licence in respect of Center Parcs, Longleat Forest, Warminster, Wiltshire, BA12 7PU made by Center Parcs Limited.  The report of the Licensing Officer is attached.

Application by Center Parcs Limited for a variation of a Premises licence in respect of Center Parcs, Longleat Forest, Warminster

The Licensing Officer introduced the purpose and scope of the application, the premises to which it related and the key issues for consideration.

During the consultation process, one relevant representation had been received from Horningsham Parish Council who had concerns that the traffic from the further 3700 persons would cause even more public safety issues than were being had a present.

In accordance with the procedure detailed in the agenda, the Applicant was given the opportunity to address the Sub Committee.  No representatives from Horningsham Parish Council were present at the meeting.

Key points raised by Gemma Burrows, Legal and Insurance Advisor for Center Parcs on behalf of the Applicant were:

·               The variation application had been submitted to address the numbers that could be on the premises at any one time.  They were confident that during non-change over days (change over days were Monday and Friday) that there would be no more than 4,999 visitors present in any of the licenced areas.  On changeover days there were likely to be more on site as some visitors would exit their accommodation and continue to use the site facilities and some guests would arrive early to use the facilities before they accessed their accommodation.

·               The numbers would not be rising by 3,700.  The figure of 8,700 has been calculated as the absolute maximum of people that could be on site at any time and this would only likely to rise above 5,000 on the Monday and Friday changeover days.

·               The Applicants did not anticipate for there to be any traffic increases at all.

·               The figure of 8,700 also included staff as they may be present in a licensing area at a particular time.

The Sub Committee asked the following questions.

Q       How is traffic managed off site?

A       We were not aware of any traffic issues and this is the first concern about traffic that we had heard about,  We were hoping to attend a meeting of the Parish Council who were going to discuss our application but we never received an invitation to such a meeting.  We were aware that there was a lot of traffic in the area on the day that the Elton John concert was held at Longleat, but they are separate from us.  There is a long drive to the entrance of Center Parcs and we have a smooth check in system to prevent delays.  We do have another entrance that can be used to get onto the site and this is used when necessary.  Our occupancy is constant all through the year and we are not aware of traffic problems.

Q       Do you have any local community liaison with local residents?

A       Not that I am aware of as I am based in the Head Office.  I do know that a staff member is also a member of the Parish Council and we would be happy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.