RESOLVED:  That Councillor John Sargeant be appointed Chair of the meeting.

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair and all present introduced themselves, and the Chair outlined the procedure for the hearing.

The Legal Advisor, when asked by the Chair, confirmed that he had not given any legal advice as yet.

The Licensing Officer was asked if they had any points to raise or were aware of any discussions that had taken place, and they confirmed they were not aware of any at this stage.

The Chair then invited the Applicant to put forward their case. The Applicant was represented by Gill Sherratt of Licensing Matters, who spoke on behalf of the Director of JS Supermarkets Limited, who was in attendance.

The Applicant  advised the Committee that the Application was for a variation to an existing Premises Licence that had never had any previous changes, and explained that the variation was for an extension of opening hours and alcohol sales until 2am on each day of the week. The Director had been trading for 2  ½ years, but had been in retail for over 20 years, and also owned another store in Carshalton. No issues had ever occurred for either store, and although the Director worked mostly at these stores, he also had a full-time manager and 4-5 part time staff.

The Applicant’s representative explained that the premises was a Sri-Lankan/Asian Convenience Store, with Alcohol sales ancilliary to its food sales, as the shop mostly sold groceries. It was noted that many Sri-Lankan/Asian people would want to continue shopping later at night, hence the reason for the application.

The Applicant’s representative explained to the Licensing Sub-Committee that all necessary policies and procedures were in place, including that

• CCTV was operational,
• training was up to date,
• all staff were trained by the Director who also had regular training (including when changes to the law took place);
• Challenge 25 was in operation, and
• there was a refusals register.

The Applicant’s representative explained to the Licensing Sub-Committee that the store did not experience any issues with street drinkers, since the shop was so specialised it did not attract them. The Applicant’s representative stated that the store had a good relationship with the Police and the local people in the area.

The Applicant’s representative explained to the Licensing Sub-Committee that the premises is in a Cumulative Impact Zone, but advised that she had spoken to the Police who had advised that the problems were mainly in the Town Centre and therefore the concern was over people being displaced or resorting to the premises.  In light of this, the Applicant’s representative had agreed and added a condition within the application that there would be no sales of beer and cider of over 6% to  discourage street drinkers.

The Location had been considered by the Applicant’s representative who advised the Licensing Sub-Committee that this had also been considered by the Police, as well as the style of business being mostly for groceries. Following a question from the Legal Advisor, the Applicant advised that alcohol sales made up 5% of sales.

The Applicant’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Councillor John Sargeant (Chair) welcomed all in attendance, and all present introduced themselves to the Committee. The Chair outlined the procedure for the hearing and advised that Councillor Judy Saunders had replaced Councillor Pauline Cowper for this meeting.

The Licensing Officer advised that she was aware that there had been extensive discussions and agreements made since the publication of the agenda and suggested that the applicant state these when they put forward their case.

The Applicant was invited by the Chair to put forward their case. Michael Bromley-Martin QC spoke on behalf of the Applicant.  Mr Bromley-Martin advised that the Eastern Electrics Festival had been running for 8 years and had been previously undertaken safely and successfully at Knebworth, Greenwich and most recently Hatfield House. The Festival had always grown in number and had become more and more popular. The organisers had been let down by Hatfield House at the last minute. Therefore, the proposal was to hold the Festival in Morden Park, which had a larger area than Hatfield, although it was only  proposed to use a small section of Morden Park itself. The Park had good transport links, but there was no parking and Mr Bromley-Martin noted that was why the good transport links were so important. The Festival would be an all-ticketed (pre-sold) event.  Mr Bromley-Martin stated that We Are The Fair, the operators, had an extremely good reputation in their field, with a strong and lengthy track record. Mr Bromley-Martin urged the Licensing Sub-Committee to read the capability statements included within the papers.

Mr Bromley-Martin advised that this would be a one day event on the 5^th August from 11am to 11pm. However, licensable activities would end at 10pm, noting that this had been changed from the original application.

Mr Bromley-Martin advised that they had applied for a 20,000 person capacity, explaining that in 2016 they held a licence for up to 25,000 people with an attendance of 17,000. We Are The Fair had undertaken many other events of this kind.

Mr Bromley-Martin observed that there had been no objections from any residents or Councillors, and that the Councils’ Greenspaces Department were very much in favour of the application.

Referring to the representations received from the Police, the Applicant stated that this Festival had a good reputation in prevention of crime and disorder, and had experienced no difficulty other than what is to be expected when large numbers of people gather in one place. In 2016 there were 15 arrests, which Mr Bromley-Martin stated were mostly for possession with intent to supply which only became an offence in 2016.

Mr Bromley-Martin assured the Committee that they had a zero tolerance policy regarding Psychoactive substances and they were confident that they could ensure they would not be on site.

Mr Bromley-Martin advised that the question of searching had been raised by Police, and answered that there was a plan to introduce ID scanning but this would be a targeted approach as ID scanning of everyone would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.