Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any Declarations and advise Members accordingly.

None were received.  

That the application be granted.

The Licensing Officer presented the report which invited Members to consider and determine an application under the Licensing Act 2003 for a Premises Licence for Thrifty’s, 7 Broughton Hall Road, Broughton, Flintshire.

                        The applicant had applied for the supply of alcohol for consumption off the premises with the hours Monday to Sunday 07:00 to 22:00.

                        Representations had been made by Mr Mark Griffiths as owner of the local Post Office, together with a petition from members of the local community in support of his letter.  Representation had also been received from Mrs Marian Griffiths, Mr Griffths’ mother.

                        North Wales Police had confirmed that the Officer responsible for the area had no objections to make to the application.  North Wales Fire and Rescue Service had confirmed that they would not be making any representations on the application.

                        The steps that the applicant intended to take to promote the four licensing objectives were set out in Appendix E to the report and the application had been advertised in the correct manner.

            Representation by the Applicant

                        Mr Soni referred to the petition that had been submitted citing that many names on the list were not from the local area.  He felt that Mr Griffiths had a conflict of interest as he was the owner of the local Post Office and if approved, this application would result in healthy competition in the area which was the case with all of the other Thrifty stores.

                        He commented on the Police having no objections to the application and added that CCTV recordings would take place inside and outside the store at all times which could help to alleviate Mr Griffiths’ worries about anti-social behaviour.  The CCTV equipment was of high standard, provided good quality images and the store would have trained CCTV operatives.  He provided details of Challenge 25 and examples of where this had been enforced in other Thrifty stores.   Thrifty’s held 9 licences in different counties and none of those stores had a problem with customers under age trying to purchase alcohol.  The aim of the company was to make their customers feel safe and welcome.

                        In addition, he said the premises was previously a co-op store which had a premises licence and he felt that by bringing the long standing vacant property back into use would help to detract any youths away from the area.  He expressed his desire to work with the community to keep anti-social behaviour as a thing of the past.

            Representation by the Interested Party

                        Councillor Mullin thanked the Chair for allowing him to speak on behalf of Mr Griffiths.  His main concern was the proximity of other premises in the area also selling alcohol which he felt created problems with youths.

                        The applicant explained that they were a responsible retailer and alcohol was ancillary to the other goods sold in store.

            Questions

                        Councillor Sharps asked Mrs Jones if she had anything to add about anti-social behaviour in the area and she reiterated the points about current  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.