Agenda and minutes

It was moved by Councillor White, seconded by Councillor Watson and:-

RESOLVED – That Councillor Cossens be elected Chairman for the meeting.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on 14 September 2018.

The minutes of the meeting of the Premises/Licences Sub-Committee held on 14 September 2018 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

Councillor Davis declared a Personal Interest in the item in that she had been a Management Trainee for McDonalds many years ago.

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

There were none.

The Sub-Committee is invited to consider an application for the grant of a Premises Licence in respect of the above premises.

The Chairman (Councillor Cossens) welcomed everyone to the meeting and made introductory remarks. 

The Council’s Licensing Manager (Karen Townshend) then gave a verbal summary of the written report and advised that the Sub-Committee had before it, for its consideration, as set out in item A.1 of the Report of the Corporate Director (Operational Services), an application for the Grant of a Premises Licence at the Teardrop Site, Williamsburg Avenue, Harwich.

Section 2.2 of the written report set out the proposed opening hours for the premises which were:

Mondays to Sunday 0000 hours to 2359 hours.

The Licensing Manager reported that the proposed licensable activities applied for by the applicant were before Members in Sections 3.1 to 3.4 of the written report.

The applicant had stated the steps that they proposed to take to promote the statutory Licensing Objectives within the Operating Schedule and those were detailed in Sections 4.1 to 4.5 inclusive.

Members were further informed that two e-mails and one letter of representation/objection had been received in relation to this application.

It was reported that no Responsible Authorities had made representations on the application.

The Sub-Committee had before it for its information the relevant extracts from the Council’s Statement of Licensing Policy in respect of planning considerations and the statutory ‘Prevention of Public Nuisance’ Licensing Objective.

Members also had before them for their assistance the relevant paragraphs from the Home Office’s Section 182 Guidance that accompanied the Licensing Act 2003 in respect of the following –

(1)   Prevention of Public Nuisance;

(2)   Prevention of Crime and Disorder; and

(3)   Planning and Building Control.

The Chairman stated that he wished to give an equal amount of time to both the applicant and the objectors to make their cases.  He proposed 15 minutes for each side.

Mr Craig Newnes, Franchisee for McDonalds gave a brief summary of his  employment with McDonalds, with whom he had begun employment in 1990. He had been an Operations Manager for 16 years, responsible for 50 restaurants across Essex and East London.  He had been a franchisee for a number of McDonalds’ restaurants including some that were open 24 hours.  He was now a franchisee for several McDonalds in the area including Clacton, Weeley and Colchester and also owned the Sudbury Restaurant.  In 2017 Colchester Borough Council had asked him to be one of 6 Ambassadors for the town, and he now was a Colchester Ambassador as well as being part of Colbac, the Colchester against Crime group.  He had joined Sudbury Chamber of Commerce from day one, and he was alsoinvolved in Sudbury in Bloom and Weeley in Bloom. He had recently been involved in a “community litter event” where, over 6 hours in the rain, he and others had collected 50 bags of rubbish. He was also involved with the Clacton Town Partnership and he had recently been approached to sit on the Town Centre Working Party.  He was proud that Harwich would now have a McDonald’s restaurant: they had hired 100 new staff  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.