Agenda and draft minutes

Perfetto, Ground Floor and Basement, 112 Westbourne Grove, W2

14/07833/LIPN

Adjourned prior to the meeting at the request of the Applicant.

Jamaica Patty, Basement and Ground Floor, 26 New Row, WC2N 4LA

14/08128/LIPN

1.

Late Night Refreshment: Indoors and Outdoors

Monday to Saturday 23:00 to 00:00

Amendments to application advised at hearing:

None

Decision (including reasons if different from those set out in report):

The application for a new Late Night Refreshment: Indoors and Outdoors premises licence to operate as a shop selling hot food and beverages to eat in and take away from 23:00 to 00:00 was refused.

Mr Roberts outlined that the premises was set up to sell take-away food and that his main aim was to create a brand to represent Jamaica in a positive way.  It was a small business and the turnover was around £4000 per week.  Mr Roberts emphasised that he really needed the licence as it was mainly a take-away business and that if more people ate inside the premises he would have to pay VAT which would make a big difference to the profit margin.  He advised that he had not been told he needed a licence to trade until midnight when he took over the business and had been trading until midnight until he had been informed that he needed a licence.  He had immediately stopped trading and had submitted a licence  application to the Council.  He added that he felt it was peculiar that he had been asked to make an application for something that was contrary to the Council’s Licensing Policy and felt very surprised by the number of people objecting to his application.

Mr Roberts advised that other premises in the area had late night refreshment licences, like McDonalds and the ice-cream parlour next door to him, and there had been no noise complaints made about these premises.  He also added that the Angel Crown pub had a late night licence.  He further advised that when he had opened until midnight his customers had mainly been late night workers.

Mr Robert advised of a complaint that had been made against the premises when he and his wife were on holiday.  He confirmed that he knew how important it was to manage your business well and be considerate to your neighbours. 

Mr Wroe advised Mr Roberts of the Council’s Stress Area Policies STRI, HRS1 and FFP2 and read out ‘it is the Licensing Authority’s policy to refuse applications in the Stress Area for: pubs and bars; late night refreshment premises offering hot food and drink to take-away’.  Mr Wroe further advised that Mr Robert needed to show exceptional circumstances as to why  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

12 Hay Hill, Lower Ground Floor to Fourth Floor, W1J 6DQ

14/08158/LIPN

1.

Late Night Refreshment: Indoors

Monday to Thursday 23:00 to 00:00

Friday to Saturday 23:00 to 01:30

Amendments to application advised at hearing:

Late submissions of the Club rules and response to the proposed conditions had been received and circulated to the Sub-Committee.

Decision (including reasons if different from those set out in report):

The application was for a new premises licence to operate the building as serviced offices with licensable facilities, consisting of 7 levels from basement to 4th floor was granted.

Mr Botkai advised that this application was for a new premises licence to operate the building as serviced offices with licensable facilities, consisting of 7 levels from basement to 4th floor.  He stated that it would be a Members club only with two types of Membership on offer: A Tenant Membership where a person paid £72,000 per year and had their own office space and use of the gym and dining facilities and a Members Membership where a person paid £1800 per year and could hot desk on certain floors of the building and use the gym and dining facilities.   He added that the building would primary be used as office space but to make the business viable, high class dining facilities needed to be available on the premises.

Mr Botkai explained the layout of the building to the Sub-Committee.  The basement would be a technical area only.  The lower ground floor would contain a lounge/bar area with a small outside area for people who wished to smoke.  The ground floor would have a reception area and it had been agreed with Environmental Health that the doors would be kept closed at all times.  Hot desking would be available on the ground floor as well as a dining area.  The 1^st floor would accommodate the gym and the 2^nd floor would provide offices for tenants.  It also had a small terrace for canapé parties.  Mr Botkai requested that people were allowed to stand on the terrace and that the condition regarding seating on the terrace should not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Vinyl Bars Ltd, 36-38 Hanway Street, W1T 1UP

14/07515/LIPN

1.

Regulated Entertainment: Live Music, Performance of Dance, Anything similar to the above

Monday to Saturday   09:00 to 02:00

Sunday                                    09:00 to 23:00

Recorded Music

Monday to Sunday                 00:00 to 00:00 (24 Hours)

Amendments to application advised at hearing:

The Licensing Service advised that Licensing Policy 2.1.7 also related to this application and had been omitted from the report.

Policy 2.1.7 In cases where licences have lapsed through insolvency or death, the council will generally grant a new licence on similar terms to the lapsed licence as a replacement.  However the Council will take into account the previous history of the premises, the length of time the premises have been closed, and any problems at the premises, and will impose conditions that reflect current good practice for the type of business proposed at the premises.

In response to a question from the Sub-Committee, the Licensing Service advised that the licence could only be transferred if a transfer application was made within 28 days and this had not happened in this case. 

In response to a question from the Sub-Committee, Mr Skeens advised that the late submission regarding a legal case submitted the morning of the hearing would be withdrawn.

Decision (including reasons if different from those set out in report):

The application for a new premises licence to operate as a bar was granted.

Mr Skeens advised that this was a small premises with a capacity for 60 persons situated on the edge of the West End Stress Area.  The previous license had lapsed on 25.04.2014 following the liquidation of Net Bars Limited.  He referred to the licensing history of the premises and advised that the outgoing operator had submitted two transfer licencing applications to have the licence transferred to Vinyl Bar.  The Licensing Service, however, had confirmed that these applications were not valid. He explained that If the transfer applications had been valid, Vinyl Bar would only be asking the Sub-Committee for a minor variation instead of a new premises licence. 

Mr Skeens advised that the licence that Vinyl Bar were asking for was virtually identical to the previous lapsed licence.  He referred to page 208 of the report which contained the proposed conditions and went through them with the Sub-Committee.  He emphasised that he felt that the proposed conditions clearly set out the operation of the premises and would promote the Licensing objectives.  He advised the time of 10pm should be changed to 11pm and the words ‘wine or’ should be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Review of the premises licences for:

Madame JoJo’s, 8-10 Brewer Street, W1

14/09263/LIREVX

An application had been made by the Metropolitan Police Service to review the premises licences for Madame JoJo's and Escape Nightclub under Section 53A(1)(b) of the Licensing Act 2003 (premises associated with serious crime or disorder).

The Committee after considering the report and the evidence presented at the hearing may take such interim steps as it considers necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives.  These steps are:

(a)       modification of the conditions of the premises licence (modify, delete or add conditions);

(b)       to exclude the sale by retail of alcohol from the scope of the licence;

(c)       to suspend the licence for a period not exceeding three months

(d)       to revoke the licence;

Decision (including reasons):

The Sub-Committee initially heard from Mr Rankin.  He stated that there had been a grievous assault perpetrated by employees from Madame JoJo’s and Escape Nightclub on Friday 24 October 2014 at approximately 00:35 hours.  There had been a series of failings which showed a complete disregard for the licensing objectives and the serious incident had been created purely by the employees themselves.  Mr Rankin described the attack (as detailed below).  He emphasised that the incident was so serious that it did not matter  how good the new management strategy was or how  the new DPS was, the Police were seeking revocation of the licence to send a clear message to the West End that this behaviour would not be tolerated.

Sergeant Partridge and PC Guerra took Members through the CCTV footage of the incident.  This included the incidents recorded on CCTV outside Madame JoJo’s and also CCTV from inside the venue directed towards the street.  The footage from the external camera included the discussion between a member of security from Escape and a Somali male escalating to the point where the male is head-butted and then pinned against the wall by the security manager of Madame JoJo’s only to be punched a number of times by a man the Police believed to be Madame JoJo’s taxi operator.  When the Somali male returned with a group of males seen throwing glass bottles towards Madame JoJo’s door, the indoor camera showed security staff producing baseball bats wrapped in bin liners.  The Somali male was attacked again by security  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Review of the premises licences for:

Escape Nightclub, 10A Brewer Street, W1

14/09252/LIREVX

An application had been made by the Metropolitan Police Service to review the premises licences for Madame JoJo's and Escape Nightclub under Section 53A(1)(b) of the Licensing Act 2003 (premises associated with serious crime or disorder).

The Committee after considering the report and the evidence presented at the hearing may take such interim steps as it considers necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives.  These steps are:

(a)       modification of the conditions of the premises licence (modify, delete or add conditions);

(b)       to exclude the sale by retail of alcohol from the scope of the licence;

(c)       to suspend the licence for a period not exceeding three months

(d)       to revoke the licence;

Decision (including reasons):

The Sub-Committee initially heard from Mr Rankin.  He stated that there had been a grievous assault perpetrated by employees from Madame JoJo’s and Escape Nightclub on Friday 24 October 2014 at approximately 00:35 hours.  There had been a series of failings which showed a complete disregard for the licensing objectives and the serious incident had been created purely by the employees themselves.  Mr Rankin described the attack (as detailed below).  He emphasised that the incident was so serious that it did not matter  how good the new management strategy was or how  the new DPS was, the Police were seeking revocation of the licence to send a clear message to the West End that this behaviour would not be tolerated.

Sergeant Partridge and PC Guerra took Members through the CCTV footage of the incident.  This included the incidents recorded on CCTV outside Madame JoJo’s and also CCTV from inside the venue directed towards the street.  The footage from the external camera included the discussion between a member of security from Escape and a Somali male escalating to the point where the male is head-butted and then pinned against the wall by the security manager of Madame JoJo’s only to be punched a number of times by a man the Police believed to be Madame JoJo’s taxi operator.  When the Somali male returned with a group of males seen throwing glass bottles towards Madame JoJo’s door, the indoor camera showed security staff producing baseball bats wrapped in bin liners.  The Somali male was attacked again by security staff,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.