Agenda item
Application by Sithamparanathan Kirubendran to extend the hours for the sale of alcohol sale from 08:00hrs to 23:00hrs Monday to Saturday and from 10:00hrs to 22:30hrs Sunday to 06:00hrs to 00:00hrs Monday to Sunday at Woodchurch Filling Station (242 Church Lane NW9 8SL), pursuant to the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003.
Minutes:
Responsible Authority
Michael Sullivan Brent Licensing Police
Applicant
Sithamparanathan Kirubendran
Decision:
That the application by Sithamparanathan Kirubendran to extend the hours for the sale of alcohol sale from 08:00hrs to 23:00hrs Monday to Saturday and from 10:00hrs to 22:30hrs Sunday to 06:00hrs to 00:00hrs Monday to Sunday at Woodchurch Filling Station (242 Church Lane NW9 8SL), pursuant to the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003 be granted in part.
The full record of the Sub-Committee’s decision and the reasons are as set out in the decision letter, set out below.
The application
The Sub-Committee has given careful consideration to an application by the premises licence holder, under section 34 of the Licensing Act 2003, to vary the premises licence relating to Woodchurch Filling Station 242 Church Lane NW9 8SL by extending the existing hours for the sale of alcohol. Mr Sithamparanathan Kirubendran is the premises licence holder (PLH). The premises are licensed for the sale of alcohol from 08:00hrs to 23:00hrs Monday to Saturday and from 10:00hrs to 22.30hrs Sunday.
The application is for the opening hours of the premises to be from 06:00 to 24:00 Monday to Sunday and the sale of alcohol to be from 06:00 to 24:00 Monday to Sunday.
The police objected to the application raising concerns about the following licensing objective: prevention of public nuisance. The Police informed the Sub Committee that the reason why Mr Kirubendran wishes to extend his operating hours is to ‘catch the passing trade of Eastern Europeans’ that are either going to or leaving work at the nearby industrial estate, on the basis that he is losing out to other local shops who sell alcohol to these males, which demonstrated a total lack of awareness that Brent is a controlled drinking zone. The Police stated that Mr Kirubendran has not considered the potential implications to the local community of street drinkers that will congregate to consume beers at the end of their shifts or even more worringly males drinking alcohol before the start of their working day.
The Police told the Sub Committee that there is a problem with street drinkers in the area and that if the application is granted there is a risk that this would promote street drinking. Furthermore Mr Kirubendran was not able to explain what measures he would put in place to deal with this problem over and above not selling alcohol to persons who appeared drunk. The Police were of the view that the application had not been well though out, was purely profit driven and that there was no evidence before the Sub Committee as to how Mr Kirubendran intended to promote the licensing objectives.
The Police further informed the Sub Committee that upon visiting the premises on 11 December 2015 there were a number of breaches to the licence conditions namely: alcohol screen not lockable, no time delay safe, no incident book and a number of high strength beers were on display which Mr Kirubendran subsequently removed from the fridge. Mr Kirubendran was issued with a formal warning.
The full details of the application made by the premises licence holder as well as the Police objection amongst other information, is contained within the document pack attached to the Agenda for our meeting. This information is publicly available and is therefore not repeated in detail in our decision notice.
The hearing
Mr Sithamparanathan Kirubendran attended the hearing.
PC Michael Sullivan represented the Police.
The decision
We have listened to all the representations and have read all the material.
We have had regard to the statutory guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003, and the Council’s own licensing policy.
We have taken into account our duty under section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to have due regard to the likely effect of the exercise of our discretion on, and the need to do all we reasonably can, to prevent crime and disorder in our area and the misuse of alcohol.
We confirm that in making our decision we have sought to promote the licensing objectives.
We also confirm that we have imposed further regulation only if satisfied that it was necessary, proportionate and appropriate to do so and justified on the facts of this particular case.
On the facts of this application, it is particularly noteworthy that, according to statutory guidance, we should accept all reasonable and proportionate representations made by the Police unless we have evidence that to do so would not be appropriate for the promotion of the licensing objectives. However, it remains incumbent on the Police to ensure that their representations can withstand the scrutiny to which they would be subject at a hearing.
We found that the evidence submitted by the Police related to sporadic street drinking in the area that was not directly related to the premises.
However, we did have concerns about public safety/protection of children given that the premises is ostensibly a filling station but has large amounts of alcohol on sale. Furthermore, Mr Kirubendran admitted that he sells more alcohol than petrol. The premises is also located near to a Primary School.
During the course of the hearing we heard evidence from Mr Kirubendran. Mr Kirubendran stated that he had been in business since 1999, had never had any complaints about the operation of his business from the public, police local authority or neighbours and that he has known most of his customers for many years since childhood. Mr Kirubendran disputed the evidence in the paperwork from the Police as regards breaches to conditions on his licence on the basis that on the day of their visit in December 2015 they only had a draft version of the licence. At the time the Police inspected the premises, because of a backlog, the licensing team had not been able to issue the licence premises document. This however did not mean that Mr Kirubendran was not required to comply with the conditions of his licence. Mr Kirubendran was clearly taking advantage of his licence in order to lawfully carry on licensable activities at his premises and was therefore bound to comply with the conditions attached to his licence and which he was aware of. Those conditions remain attached to his licence and are unaffected by our decision to extend the hours of his licence.
We noted that the photographs produced by the Police at pages 49, 51and 57 of the document pack show vast quantities of alcohol stocks far more than we would expect to see at a petrol station and the photographs on pages 50 and 51 show a tube of plastic cups behind the counter. Mr Kirubendran stated that the plastic cups were available for staff to make tea and coffee because he no longer has a kitchen. It was pointed out to him by the Sub Committee that the coffee machine can be clearly seen from the photograph at page 57 with its own supply of cups attached. Mr Kirubendran went on to inform the Sub Committee that the Police had not presented any evidence to substantiate the allegation that single cups of alcohol were being sold from the premises.
Mr Kirubendran concluded that there were no street drinkers in the vicinity of the filling station and that all the petrol stations in the area have 24 hour licences. Mr Kirubendran also informed the Sub Committee that he is entitled run his business for profit, that he has business expenses like everyone else and he is not a charity.
We have therefore decided to grant the application in part. We do not agree to extend the opening hours to 6am. We do agree to extend the terminal hour for the sale of alcohol to midnight Monday to Sunday and that the change of hours be incorporated into the new licence. All the mandatory conditions relating to off sales still apply together with all the Operating conditions in Annexe 2. The terminal hour for the sale of alcohol in the embedded conditions be extended to midnight.
Informative
An up to date floor plan is to be submitted. If any subsequent changes are made to the lay out of the premises a new floor plan will be submitted.
The effective date of this decision
This decision takes effect immediately.
Right of Appeal
The party has a right of appeal to Brent Magistrates’ Court against this decision.
If you wish to appeal you must notify Brent Magistrates’ Court within a period of 21 days starting with the day on which the Council notified you of this decision.
Supporting documents:
- Variation - Woodchurch Filling Station 242 Church Lane NW9, item 3. PDF 48 KB
- Woodchurch - Application, item 3. PDF 650 KB
- Woodchurch - Police Rep, item 3. PDF 94 KB
- Woodchurch - Police Warning Letter, item 3. PDF 132 KB
- Woodchurch - Photo Evidence, item 3. PDF 664 KB
- Woodchurch - Applicant Evidence1, item 3. PDF 92 KB
- Woodchurch - Applicant Evidence2, item 3. PDF 98 KB
- Woodchurch - Applicant Evidence4, item 3. PDF 2 MB
- Woodchurch - Response, item 3. HTM 37 KB
- Woodchurch - Licence, item 3. PDF 375 KB
- Woodchurch OS Map, item 3. PDF 717 KB
- Email statement, item 3. PDF 56 KB
- Defence of Police rrepresentation, item 3. PDF 2 MB
- 20160109_145935, item 3. PDF 42 KB
- 20160109_145841, item 3. PDF 46 KB