Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

10.

Appointment of Chairman

Minutes:

Resolved: That Cllr Pett be appointed as Chairman of the Licensing Hearing.

11.

Declarations of interest

Minutes:

There were none.

12.

LICENSING ACT 2003 REVIEW APPLICATION - Ephesus, 57-59 High Street, Sevenoaks, Kent. TN13 1JF pdf icon PDF 75 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

  The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Resolved: That, under section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting when considering Appendices I,K, M, O and sections NC1, NC2, SDL/05 – SDL/15, SDL/19, and SDL/20 of Appendix AA of Agenda Item 3 above, on the grounds that likely disclosure of exempt information is involved as defined by Schedule 12A, paragraph 2 (Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.)

The Hearing gave consideration to the report by the Senior Licensing Officer giving details of the review application which had been submitted by Susan Lindsey, of the Licensing Authority in relation to Ephesus, 57-59 High Street, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 1JF. The Head of Licensing Partnership advised that the reasons for the review were set out on pages 14 to 16 of the agenda pack. She also advised that following new representation for the Licence Holder, the first hearing date had been cancelled and all the relevant information was available in the agenda packs and supplementary agendas.

The Applicant advised the Hearing that on 27 May 2022 she had undertaken ‘out of hours’ monitoring following information that the premises were operating outside of its authorised licensable hours. She also advised that there had been a further incident over a weekend in August 2022, which undermined the Licensing Objective of the prevention of crime and disorder. The current licence allowed the sale of alcohol until midnight on Monday to Saturdays, and until 11:30pm on Sunday. The License did not include regulated entertained but certain music could be played until 11pm following deregulation.

Various clips of audio and video footage were shown to the Hearing. The Applicant indicated that music could be clearly heard from outside the premises when the doors were open including from her car parked 45m away with the car window open and also at the back of the property, but that when the doors were not open the music was barely audible. People were entering and exiting and there was no evidence to show that Ephesus would be closing.

She further advised that music could still be heard past midnight, and so she undertook further investigation. The Hearing was advised that she was able to purchase an alcoholic drink at 12:08am but she had to repeat her order to the bar staff as the music was loud. Further audible footage was heard and the timings of the recordings were as follows 12:09am and 12:13am. She stated the levels were not background music and users were there for the bar and DJ music set. People were still coming and going.

The License Holder had been reminded on numerous occasions of his responsibility under his licence and submitted two full variations to extend hours, of which both were withdrawn. She felt it was clear that the Licence Holder knew he could only operate until 12am. She continued to monitor back in her vehicle until 1.20am and advised she could clearly hear music when  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Notice of Determination pdf icon PDF 108 KB

 

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