Agenda item

To consider an application to vary a Premises Licence for Kanee Convenience Store, 58 Dickson Road, Blackpool, FY1 2AJ.

A. Application and representations submitted. To consider the attached report.

B. Determination of the application to vary a Premises Licence – Kanee Convenience Store.

The Licensing Panel will indicate how the decision is to be communicated to interested parties.

The Licensing Panel considered an application to vary the Premises Licence for Kanee Convenience Store, 58 Dickson Road, PL0072, to extend the terminal hour for off sales of alcohol by one hour from 23.00 to 00:00 Monday to Saturday and to adjust the trading times on Sunday from 10:00 to 22:30 to match the trading hours in the rest of the week which would change from 10:00 to 22:30 to 08:00 to 00:00.

Mr Mark Marshall was in attendance representing the case on behalf of Mr. Perashath Selveraja, The Director of Kanee Convenience Store, who was also present. Objections had been received from Lancashire Constabulary prior to the application being submitted and The Licensing Panel’s attention was drawn to the additional conditions offered in regards to CCTV and a proof of age policy.

The applicant Mr. Perashath Selveraja was described as an experienced operator who had directed the business for 6 years with having not drawn the attention of the licensing authority or brought the reputation of his business into disrepute. Mr. Perashath Selveraja had worked on improving the existing knowledge and training of his staff prior to submitting the application and that he and his staff actively refuse sales of alcohol to persons they feel would be problematic. Following on from these additional steps put in place, Mr Marshall proposed that to extend the premises terminal hour alongside these extra steps would be a reasonable request for the panel to consider, furthermore a licensed individual would be on the premises at all times which Mr Mark Marshall felt would further reduce the possible effect that late night sales of alcohol from Kanee Convenience Store would have on the crime and incidents of anti-social behaviour in the area. Mr Marshall felt that instances of crime and anti-social behaviour are as a result of other, wider issues that exist in the area and that it was not necessarily fair to view these alcohol related in relation to a Kanee Convenience Store extending its terminal hour to match the hours of other premises nearby or that late night sales of alcohol sold from such off-licences were to blame for these crime and anti-social behaviour statistics.

Mr Marshall concluded by advising the Panel that Temporary Event Notices (TEN) had recently been applied for in June 2022 running for a total twenty one days to test the proposed later opening hours which had passed without incident. He therefore considered that there would be no adverse impact on the Licensing  Objectives if the extended hours were approved and so invited the Panel to grant the application.

Sergeant Nat Cox presented the objection on behalf of Lancashire Constabulary, Sergeant Cox drew attention to recent police statistics that indicated Blackpool had high levels of alcohol related harm for the size of the population and that in particular there exists widespread deprivation within the Central Wards of the town, Claremont and Talbot. There are already approximately 179 licensed premises in Blackpool, half of which are located in the most deprived wards in the town.

In the last year, Lancashire Police recorded 3,573 alcohol related crimes in Blackpool further to this total figure 852 (25%) of this total were alcohol related crimes committed in the Claremont Ward in which the Kanee Convenience store is situated. Sergeant Cox added to this stating that roughly 100 of these incidents will occur between the hours of 00:00 and 01:00 Sergeant Cox outlined Lancashire Constabulary are of the opinion that this premises would add to the cumulative impact already being experienced in the area as Claremont and Talbot are also the highest wards for alcohol related anti-social behaviour and hospital admissions.

The Licensing Panel considered the outcome of the application and the representation given to them by Mr Mark Marshall, the panel acknowledged that Mr. Perashath Selveraja was a responsible and experienced operator of the retail venue, Kanee Convenience Store who had operated the off licensed venue for 6 years without significant incidents and valued the reassurances volunteered to reduce the effect on the Cumulative Impact Assessment. The Licensing Panel also reflected on the representation given by Lancashire Constabulary, in spite of the willingness to alter current alcohol sales procedure, The Licensing Panel did not feel this was a sufficient demonstration that the application could be considered as exceptional and decided not to depart from their current policy and that the application to extend terminal hours for Kanee Convenience store be refused.

Resolved:

That the application for the variation of the Premises Licence in respect of Kanee Convenience Store be refused.