Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Leo Madden was elected to chair this meeting.

There were no declarations of members' interests.

The purpose of the report by the Licensing Manager is for the committee to consider an application for the grant of a new premises licence pursuant to section 18 of the Licensing Act 2003 ("the Act").

The matter has been referred to the committee for determination following receipt of relevant representations from other persons namely local residents.

THE COMMITTEE IS REQUESTED TO DETERMINE THE APPLICATION

(The hearing procedure followed was that for where representations have been made by "other persons" i.e. members of the public, although none had registered to speak at the meeting.)

Summary of Application and Representations

Derek Stone presented the report on behalf of the Licensing Manager.  He circulated an additional plan (a satellite photograph) to show the location of premises at Gunwharf Quays. Mr Stone reported that on 19^th September another application of a late licence (until much later hours) on the canal side of Gunwharf had been withdrawn.  This was brought to the attention of members as it had attracted a lot of representation, and many of the letters of objection had linked these separate applications.  The application for the Cosy Club was for a location by the Spinnaker Tower, so this was situated much further away from residential properties.  There had been no representations from the Responsible Authorities but residents' objections were predominantly regarding the noise and potential for Anti-Social Behaviour during dispersal from the licenced premises.  He outlined the matters to be considered by the panel and the right of review after the granting of a licence.

Members' questions included the following:

·         Had the correct advertising and notification of the application taken place - this was confirmed

·         Had all of the Responsible Authorities been consulted - this was confirmed

·         Is there an exact definition of "in the vicinity" (statement of Licensing Policy 4.7) - there is not

·         The plan with the agenda papers contained the layout of the previous restaurant, which had been submitted by the applicant

·         Further information was given about the other, unrelated application, which had been submitted 8 days before this application, generating a lot of objections and which had since been withdrawn

·         It was asked how many licensed premises there are in Gunwharf - there are 37 venues, ranging from a supermarket, hotels to restaurants, with 2 late night venues, and the casino was open all night.

There were no questions by the applicants. There were no "other persons" to raise questions.

The Applicant's case

This was presented by Mr Rosser (Melrose Associates), accompanied by Amber Wood (Managing Director, Cosy Club/Loungers Ltd).   Mr Rosser gave background information about the applicants and wished to counter the misapprehension regarding the name "Cosy Club" stressing that the application was not for a club, it was a generic group name for their company.  They would be making substantial investment in refurbishing the building which had previously operated as the Water Margin which had closed in September 2016 (remaining empty) which had an alcohol and entertainment licence.  The current application was for alcohol and late night refreshment only, with no entertainment such as DJs.

Amber Wood outlined the style of operation - their group restaurants were 60% food and coffee sale and were family friendly and were experienced in working with the local communities.  There were local branches in Salisbury and Bournemouth and the sister operators the Lounges had 3 premises in Southampton.  There were 23 Cosy Club  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.