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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Room 3, 1-2 Seven Arches Road, Brentwood, Essex CM15 8QY

Contact: Jean Sharp (01277 312655) 

Items
No. Item

245.

Appointment of Chair

Minutes:

Members RESOLVED that Cllr Keeble should chair the meeting.

246.

Administrative Function

Members are respectfully reminded that, in determining the matters listed below, they are exercising an administrative function with the civil burden of proof, i.e. ‘on the balance of probabilities’.  The matter will be determined on the facts before the Sub-Committee and the rules of natural justice will apply.

Minutes:

Members were respectfully reminded that, in determining the matters listed below, they were exercising an administrative function with the civil burden of proof, i.e. ‘on the balance of probabilities’.  The matter would be determined on the facts before the Sub-Committee and the rules of natural justice would apply.

 

247.

Application for new premises Licence - The Vine, 104 High Street. pdf icon PDF 14 MB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

1.    Cllrs Keeble (Chair), Haigh and Jakobsson considered an application for a new premises licence for The Vine, 104 High Street, Brentwood, CM14 4AP by Mr Andreas Artemi.  The application was received on 19 August 2019.  The application was accompanied by an operating schedule and proposed Mr Artemi as the Designated Premises Supervisor.

 

2.    Relevant representations were submitted by the Licensing Authority (acting as a responsible authority) and by Essex Police.  There were discussions between the responsible authorities and the Applicant both before and after the application was submitted.  Those resulted in 38 conditions which, for the most part, had been agreed by all parties.

 

3.    At the hearing Members heard from:

 

(a)   Paul Adams, Joint Licensing Manager, Brentwood Borough Council;

 

(b)   Matt Bell, licensing consultant on behalf of the Applicant;

 

(c)   Dave Leonard, Licensing Officer, Brentwood Borough Council;

 

(d)   Gordon Ashford, Licensing Manager, Essex Police.

 

4.    Members were grateful to all the parties for their submissions which they considered carefully.

 

5.    The background to this application was that the premises, The Vine, were previously licensed under a premises licence.  That licence was revoked on 30 January 2019 following a number of serious incidents between 2017 and 2018, the last of which involved the tragic death of a customer following an altercation with a member of doorstaff employed by the Applicant.  Mr Artemi had been the premises licence holder.  Although his son, George, was the Designated Premises Supervisor, Mr Artemi was involved in the management of the premises, alongside his other venues in Southend.

 

6.    The Applicant explained in some detail the new policies that had been developed while the premises had been closed.  Members were also taken through each of the proposed conditions.  They were impressed by the presentation of the Applicant and were satisfied that the conditions would, in principle, ensure the promotion of the licensing objectives.  The Applicant submitted that Mr Artemi would dedicate himself to this premises, if granted a licence, and would delegate management of his other premises in Southend.  His plan was to manage the premises for about 3 months by which time he hoped to recruit an experienced, robust manager for the premises.  Members were told that without a licence, it was very difficult to recruit someone of the right standard.

 

7.    Mr Leonard, on behalf of the Licensing Authority, explained that he was not objecting as such to the application but that he wanted it to be determined by the Licensing Sub-Committee.  He said that he thought the Applicant’s case was persuasive but that ultimately the application turns on whether the Applicant can be trusted to adhere to the proposed conditions and policies.

 

8.    Mr Ashford, on behalf of Essex Police, stated that the Applicant was essentially trying to reinstate the licence which had been revoked in January.  He said that the capacity of the premises should be limited to 150 people (including staff).  He also pointed out that proposed Condition 21 should be clarified to make it clear that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 247.