RESOLVED:  That Councillor David Simpson be appointed Chair of the meeting.

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair opened the meeting, introduced the Committee and advised that the meeting would follow the procedure as detailed in the agenda pack.

The Licensing Officer confirmed that the application had been reduced from its’ original form and the only variations now requested were the change of name and the change of layout as detailed within the plans.

Andrew Woods, speaking on behalf of the Applicant, presented the Application on behalf of BarClub Trading Limited, with their Managing Director also attending, noting that he had implemented this concept elsewhere.

The Application sought to approve minor changes within the premises. However given the representations received, the Applicant advised that they would provide further detail on the Application.

The Applicant stated that the premises had been lacking in investment and that this proposal was to invest £500,000 in both the exterior and interior of the premises, which in turn would create 50 new jobs.

With regard to the variation of the layout and licensing plans, the Applicant explained the changes envisaged in the proposed plans, as shown within the agenda, and explained that the main changes would be to remove the dance floor, to replace the cloakroom with a kitchen and to move the location of the bar. The Applicant explained that food would be served at all times the premises was open. Noting that there had previously been discussions with residents about the noise from the premises some years ago, the Applicant advised that an extra lobby had been added to the proposed plans to assist with the potential for noise escape, though as far as they were aware there had not been any further issues since those discussions.

The Applicant advised that following receiving representations and a subsequent meeting with one of the residents who had objected, an agreement had been reached to withdraw the application to remove the condition for the rear outside area and to agree to have no use of the rear outside area on the roof terrace in any form for any licensable activities.

The Applicant stated that they had taken care to be good neighbours and that this would continue. They planned to improve the frontage of the premise, food would be served primarily from a pizza oven and that drinks would be premium priced. The Applicant also advised that there would be a new management team in place.

The Applicant noted that no representations had been received from any of the Responsible Authorities and that no changes of licensable activities or hours or operating conditions had been sought (as the amended application now proposed without removal of any conditions).

Councillor Akyigyina asked the Applicant why the application had retained the use of the licensable activity of dancing on the premises licence if the dance floor had been removed and questioned the level of disabled access given that the toilets were shown in the plan to be on the first floor. The Applicant responded that there would be no set dance floor and they would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.