Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

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

Resolved:

To elect Cllr Bill Moss as Chairman for this meeting only.

There were no announcements.

There were no declarations.

To consider and determine an Application for a Premises Licence by Mr Enkin Kale in respect of 16 Winchester Street, Salisbury, SP1 1HB.

Application by Mr Engin Kale for a Premises Licence at 16 Winchester Street, Salisbury.

The Licensing Officer introduced the purpose and scope of the application, the premises to which it related and the key issues for consideration. The Licensing Officer clarified that the original application as listed in the agenda pack had included the sale of late night refreshments, but this had been an error by the applicant and since withdrawn, leaving the sale of alcohol the only licensable activity.

In accordance with the procedure detailed in the agenda, the Applicant and the Interested Parties were given the opportunity to address the Sub Committee.

Key points raised by Mr David Harby on behalf of the Applicant, Mr Engin Kale, were:

·               That many of the representations should not be considered valid as they were located many miles from the application site. The Solicitor for the Council clarified that current legislation and guidance required no upper limit on valid representations.

·               That the applicant considered that of the 34 representations, only two should be considered as relevant; the emailed representation, and the identical letters counted as a single relevant representation.

·               This was because the applicant alleged that the representations were all from friends, family and customers of Mr Veysel Ketencimen, organized into objecting to the application of Mr Kale, who was previously employed at Mr Ketencimen’s business which he shared with his now ex-business partner, and current employer of Mr Kale, Mr Ufic Cifci.

·               With the consent of the Sub Committee and the Interested Party, Mr Harby presented several witness statements from the applicant and business owner, along with an assessment of the representations received, detailing alleged connections with Mr Ketencimen. He stated that the identical representations containing generic complaints only, should be treated as vexatious, and if not, then given little weight.

·               Mr Harby further outlined how Mr Kale would meet the licensing objectives if the licence were granted, including introduction of a Challenge25 system, an upper limit on customers within the store, the display of notices to prevent public nuisance and the appropriate quality of CCTV installed for police and officer use.

Key points raised by the Interested Party, Mr Veysel Ketencimen, were:

·               That he disputed many of the connections made by the applicant’s representative regarding the representations, stating that some were known to him, but not all.

·               That the addition of another store selling alcohol in the area would increase public disorder and nuisance, including an increase in crime and noise.

The parties were given the opportunity to ask questions of the Applicant, Interested Parties and Wiltshire Council Officers, including the following points:

Clarification was sought on how a limit on the number of customers in the shop would work. It was stated that this was not a legal requirement, but that the applicant intended to minimise overcrowding in the small space of the store.

Details were also sought regarding what information would be on the banners on shopfront offered by the applicant to discourage public  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.