Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3 - Wallasey Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Anne Beauchamp 

Items
No. Item

34.

APPOINTMENT OF CHAIR

Minutes:

Resolved – That Councillor D Mitchell be appointed Chair for this meeting.

35.

MEMBERS' CODE OF CONDUCT - DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members of the Sub-Committee are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non pecuniary interests, in connection with any application on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

 

Minutes:

Members of the Sub-Committee were asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non pecuniary interests in connection with any application on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

 

No such declarations were made.

36.

APPLICATION TO REVIEW A PREMISES LICENCE UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THE LICENSING ACT 2003: PARADOX, 1-3 PENSBY ROAD, HESWALL pdf icon PDF 723 KB

Minutes:

The Corporate Director for Business Management reported upon an application that had been received from Merseyside Police for a Review of a Premises Licence in respect of Paradox, 1-3 Pensby Road, Heswall, under the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003.

 

The Corporate Director for Business Management advised that the Sub-Committee may, having regard to the application for a Review and any relevant representations, take such of the following steps as it considered appropriate for the promotion of the licensing objectives:

 

·  Modify the Conditions of the Licence.

·  Exclude a licensable activity from the scope of the Licence.

·  Remove the Designated Premises Supervisor.

·  Suspend the Licence for a period not exceeding three months.

·  Revoke the Licence.

 

Members were informed that the Licensing Authority may decide that no action would be appropriate if it found that the review did not require it to take any steps that were appropriate to promote the licensing objectives.

 

The grounds for review were in relation to underage persons being allowed onto the premises which had resulted in a serious violent assault.

 

It was reported that the premises held a Premises Licence allowing the licensable activities as set out within the report.

 

A representation had been received from Wirral Safeguarding Children Board which supported the application to review the Premises Licence as it was their view that these premises had not taken reasonable steps to ensure the safety of children and had exposed children to an unsafe environment.

 

A representation had also been received from the Licensing Authority which supported the application to review the Premises Licence in respect of Paradox.  Copies of the representations were available.

 

Merseyside Police were represented by Geoff Lee and Constable T Grafton.  The Licensing Authority was represented by Mr A Bushell.

 

Mr H Demetrios, Designated Premises Supervisor and Mr J Demetrios, Premises Licence Holder attended the meeting together with Mr A Murray, Administrator and Mr E Demetrios, Restaurant Manager.

 

Mr Lee requested that the meeting take place in private under Regulation 14 of the Licensing Act 2003, Hearing Regulations 2005 due to ongoing investigations in the matter.

 

Members agreed that the first part of the meeting be held in private.  The representative from the press agreed to the request made by Merseyside Police and left the room during consideration of the evidence provided by Merseyside Police.

 

The Licensing Manager confirmed that all documentation had been sent and received and that although the Child Protection Board had indicated they would be represented no notification had been received advising otherwise.

 

Members heard details from Merseyside Police in respect of concerns about the management of the premises.  Merseyside Police submitted that the premises had failed to undertake stringent checks of the age of clientele using the premises, that there was poor management of the premises and the premises had failed to take advice from the Police.

 

Merseyside Police provided details relating to serious assaults that had taken place in May 2018 and March 2019. On both of these occasions there had been evidence of underage  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.