Agenda and minutes

Venue: COUNCIL CHAMBER, KILMORY, LOCHGILPHEAD

Contact: Fiona McCallum Tel. No. 01546 604406 

Items
No. Item

1.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were intimated from Councillors Rory Colville, Neil Mackay, James McQueen and Bruce Marshall.

2.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Minutes:

None declared.

3.

CIVIC GOVERNMENT (SCOTLAND) ACT 1982: APPLICATION FOR VARIATION OF LATE HOURS CATERING LICENCE (N ISLAM, CAMPBELTOWN)

Minutes:

The Chair introduced himself and invited those present to do likewise and then outlined the procedure that would be followed.

 

Mr Reppke advised that one objection had been received from Argyll and Bute Council Environmental Health Services outwith the 28 day period allowed for objections and representations to be made and that the Environmental Health Officer was in attendance and would be able to advise of the reason why the objection was submitted late.  It was for the Committee to decide whether or not they would wish to take this late objection into consideration.

 

Mr Hill advised that he had contacted Licensing staff on 4 January 2012, the day before the 28 day deadline, to advise that providing no objections were received from the Police in respect of noise and anti social behaviour he would have no objections to this application.  He advised that on 6 January 2012 he was advised that the Police had objected and, after taking advice from his line Manager, submitted an objection on behalf of Argyll and Bute Environmental Health Services.

 

The Committee agreed to take into consideration the late objection received from Argyll and Bute Environmental Health Services and a copy of this was circulated to Members.

 

The Chair invited the Applicant to speak in support of his application.

 

Applicant

 

Mr Ferguson advised that he was in attendance to speak on behalf of his client Mr Islam who owned and traded at The Crew chip shop in Campbeltown which was a hot food take away facility.  He advised that Mr Islam currently had a late hours catering licence in place for Fridays and Saturdays until 2.00 am and that he would like to extend his licence to trade until 2.30 am on Fridays and Saturdays which would relate to an additional 1 hour per week extension.  He advised that his client has been trading since 2009 and bought this long established business in 2011.  He advised that his client had previously submitted an application to extend his hours of business and that this had been turned down.  He advised that at that time there had been 2 objections received from other traders and that on this occasion there had been no objections received from other traders, there were observations made by the Police and one late objection from Environment Health.  He advised that there are other fast food establishments which currently enjoy a late hours catering licence until 2.30 am, the Indian restaurant ‘Spice’, which is currently closed, and Ms Munro’s chip van.  He stressed again that there has been no objections received from other traders.  He advised that in Campbeltown on Fridays and Saturdays most town centre public houses closed at 2.00 am and patrons leavings these establishments were looking for a place to eat on the way home.  He advised that his client regularly had customers arriving at The Crew just after 2.00 am and he has been unable to serve them and they have been turned away.  Mr Ferguson advised that his client was always very careful about the operation of his license and made sure his doors were closed by 2.00 am.  He advised that Friday and Saturday evenings were his client’s busiest days of the week and that being able to open for an extra ½ hour on Fridays and Saturdays to serve food after the pubs closed would be  the sensible thing to do.  He advised that if pubs were only open till 1.00 am then his client would be looking to reduce his opening hours to 1.30 am.  He advised that his client was clearly missing out on trade at the busiest time of the week and was unable to serve his customers.  Mr Ferguson advised that there had never been any Police incidents associated with his client’s premises and that the observation which had been made by the Police in respect of this application was general in nature and not specific to any problem or incident regarding his client’s premises.  He advised that he found the comment made that granting the application could incur anti social behaviour difficult to understand.  He advised that it was his opinion if people were able to purchase hot food when the pubs closed they would go home earlier rather than hang around the streets.  He also advised that there had been no objections received from nearby residents.  He advised that his client’s property was a single storey building and that there were no residents living above his shop.  Mr Ferguson advised that he had a difficulty with the Environment Health Officer’s objection as Mr Hill had not put forward any reason for his objection other than it was based on the observation made by the Police and that there would have been no objection if the Police had not made their observations.  He also raised his concern that the Environment Health Officer had been advised of the Police observation as he believed objectors did not normally get to see other objections.  He advised that there were no Environmental Health issues affecting his client’s premises and that no complaints have been received about rubbish lying about and that his client’s staff always cleared up the area at closing time.  He advised that he felt the objection from Environment Health was out of order and should be ignored and that the Committee should move to grant the application.

 

The Chair invited the Police and Objector to ask the Applicant questions.

 

Questions from Police

 

Inspector McLeish referred to Mr Ferguson’s comment that if his client was able to serve hot food to people until 2.30 am this would mean they would go home earlier and asked for clarification on what was meant by this.  Mr Ferguson advised that if people purchased hot food they would wish to go straight home to consume this rather than hang about the streets.

 

Questions from Objector

 

Mr Hill advised that he had no questions.

 

The Chair invited the Police and Objector to speak in support of their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.