Page Index:

Licensing
The Bridge Bar
Tesco Stores
Home Office Consultation
Beckenham Convenience Store - Update 18/11/2010
Drink Banning Orders

Licensing
by Roger Leach

The growth in the number of premises in Beckenham selling alcohol into the late hours of the evening continues with two more shops recently being granted licences by the licensing committee. Your Association and a number of local residents objected but under the current 2003 Licensing Act it made no difference.

One small shop that has only been in Beckenham for a short time was granted a licence to sell alcohol to 10.30pm some evenings and to 9.30pm on others. The old sub-post office, which has again changed its owners and its name, was recently granted a licence to sell alcohol to 11pm during the week and to 9pm on a Sunday.

Both of these shops are in the area already known by many local residents as ‘Alcohol Alley’. Within a short distance there is a night club, a pub, a large bar, a small bar, an off-licence, two supermarkets and two shops all selling alcohol.

The concern of local residents here is that this part of Beckenham was a hotspot for local problems for many years. Over the years much discussion by various concerned groups had managed to deal with some of these problems. Clubs and bars have had to impose certain restrictions, which has made it more difficult for some younger people to get into them.

Now with shops being allowed to sell alcohol into the late hours of the evening, young people who cannot get into the bigger clubs and bars could have more reason to gather round and possibly cause problems.

Trying to deal with some of theses problems does not come about without considerable cost to the local authority, with additional police resources and a costly taxi-marshalling scheme needed just to try to deal with those who drink too much and then carry on shouting and damaging residents’ property. It’s ultimately us, the residents of Beckenham, who have to pay for all this thorough our Council Tax.

Over the last couple of years many more problems have been happening at the bottom end of the High Street and now a much larger number of residents living around Beckenham town centre and beyond have been experiencing problems.

You can help our town; just watch out for any licensing applications and if you object, just write in.

The Bridge Bar

Early in 2011 the Bridge Bar in Beckenham made an application to extend their opening hours from 2am to 3am and to be allowed to increase the number of drinkers in their premises by 100.

We objected to these changes as did a number of local residents and, at the hearing, the licensing committee rejected their application.

Under the 2003 Licensing Act the applicant appealed against this decision and went for a hearing in the Magistrates Court. Later on they dropped the hours extension but still went to court regarding the additional 100 drinkers.

The case at last came to the Bromley Magistrates Court on the 6^th of December 2011. However on the day before the case came into court the barrister for the applicant raised a point of law regarding the licensing officer of Bromley speaking in court, as he himself is a local Magistrate

After many hours of debate out of court the case was adjourned and put forward to be heard in the Bromley Magistrates Court in front of a district judge on the 10^th of January 2012 at 10am.

I am pleased to report that after a 3 hour hearing in court on the 10^th of January, the District Judge agreed with the Licensing Sub-Committee decision and refused the appeal by the Bridge Bar.

The Council was also awarded full costs, so no funds were spent from the public purse.

This is a very important decision by the court and one which will hopefully deter further applications from businesses in the Cumulative Impact Zone.

Tesco Stores

When Tesco Stores Ltd opened their premises in Croydon road in September, they made an application for a licence to sell alcohol from 6am - 11pm 7 days a week.

The CCARA and a large number of local residents objected to these hours.

At the hearing in Bromley on the 10th. of September the legal representative for Tesco Stores put forward their case with a number of conditions they would put into force if they were granted the licence.

They also said they were now only applying to sell alcohol from 8am - 10pm, 7 days a week.

Cllr. Stephen Wells, Cllr. Sarah Phillips of Clock House Ward, the CCARA rep. and three local residents spoke and tried to get a further reduction on the licensing hours, particularly on a Sunday.

After a two hour meeting, the licensing committee granted the alcohol licence with over 20 conditions of their own and restricted the sale of alcohol from 10am - 10pm 7 days a week.

The Beckenham Convenience Store have gone for an appeal, after their application for a 24 hour licence was rejected earlier in the year and this will be coming up in the Magistrates Court later in November.

Before this time they will have to deal with a review of their alcohol licence.

This has come about because, somehow, this shop has contravened the Licensing Act.

Some of you may have seen the notice in Beckenham, about the Licensing Act 2003 Section 51, regarding this.

Home Office Consultation

This consultation seeks views on proposals to deliver the Government’s commitments on alcohol outlined in the Coalition Agreement. We are keen to hear from everyone who will be affected by the changes, including members of the public who are consumers of alcohol, those who are affected by alcohol-related crime, those that run or work in pubs, clubs, supermarkets and shops, criminal justice agencies, licensing authorities, and trade associations representing those who produce and sell alcohol. As the key commitments outlined have been published in the Coalition Agreement, this consultation primarily seeks views on the implications of implementing the proposals rather than inviting views on the commitments themselves.

This consultation runs for 6 weeks from 28 July to the 8 September and covers England and Wales, where these proposals apply. The Government has already consulted a number of key partners prior to publishing this consultation, which has included holding 8 meetings with over 55 stakeholders from the on and off trade, alcohol producers, police and local authorities, health and voluntary sectors.

Information on how to respond to this consultation can be found on the Home Office website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/consultations. Responses can be submitted online through the Home Office website or by post by sending responses to:
Home Office - Alcohol Strategy Unit, 4th Floor Fry Building, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
You should contact the Home Office Alcohol Strategy Unit by email at Alcohol.consultation@ homeofflce. if you require a copy of this consultation paper in any other format, e.g. Braille, Large Font, or Audio.

DEVOLVED ADMINISTRATIONS

As most of these new measures will be introduced through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill and include amendments to the Licensing Act 2003, they will only apply to England and Wales. We are yet to decide on how the ban on below cost sales of alcohol will be implemented. Were this ban to be implemented through the Mandatory Code of Practice forAlcohol Retailers or the Licensing Act 2003, it would only apply to alcohol sold in England and Wales. However, there is the possibility that the ban could be implemented across the whole of the United Kingdom if a more appropriate means of introduction is identified.

Beckenham Convenience Store
Outcome of the application

Beckenham residents, police and councillors combined to defeat an attempt to introduce overnight alcohol sales to the War Memorial end of the High Street, with 35 residents sending individual letters and e-mails of objection, and the police putting in a two-page condemnation.

The application, by Mr Mohammad Rashid of Golders Green, who two years ago won (on appeal) a licence to sell alcohol until 11 p.m. at his Convenience Store opposite the Goose public house, applied to extend the licence to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and also to sell food refreshments until 5 a.m.

This brought in a storm of objections, and by the time the application came before the Council’s licensing sub-committee on June 29 it had been scaled back to a request to sell alcohol and food till 2 a.m.

This technique, of scaling back an excessive application so the new extension looks less unreasonable is, however, well known, and the police licensing officer still strongly opposed it.

His evidence was that the premises had already been central to outbreaks of crime and disorder, when its staff had had to call the police in, and keeping open till 2 a.m. would tempt drinkers from the surrounding pubs to carry on, later and drunker, and keep people in the area longer instead of them dispersing safely.

He also said Mr Rashid had been "very sparing" in the steps he had taken to uphold policy on licensing and had three times refused requests to install adequate CCTV arrangements. He and his solicitors, Lockett & Co of Kidderminster, had given "no thought whatsoever" on how the operation would impact on licensing objectives.

Letters from Copers Cope Area Residents’ Association, Beckenham Civic Society, Councillor Stephen Wells and dozens of individual residents listed incidents already suffered through noise, disturbance, litter and drunkenness. Some mourned the loss of peace and security through the spread of late-night drinking, others criticised the cynicism of applications designed to increase the consumption of alcohol purely for profit with no thought for the public good.

The sub-committee’s refusal of permission to extend the present licence, either for alcohol or food said granting it would have undermined the licensing objectives, and that the applicants had shown no reason for the Council to depart from its policy, and no measures to help prevent crime, disorder and public nuisance.

Update - 18 November 2010

The appeal they made against the rejection of their application to sell alcohol for 24 hours, which was to be heard in the Magistrates Court later this month, has now been withdrawn.

After the review of their current alcohol licence, which took place on the 19^th October, they were given a 2 months suspension of their license.

However they have now made an appeal against that decision and this will probably be held in the Magistrates Court in January 2011.

Drink Banning Orders

These came into force on 31 August 2009 and are civil orders that can be made against an individual aged 16 and over if they have engaged in criminal or disorderly conduct while under the influence of alcohol.

An order may last for between two months and two years and aims to protect communities from future bad conduct of this kind by prohibiting the individual from doing things prescribed in it.

Will these orders protect the residents of Beckenham from having their fences, walls, cars and trees damaged so often? Police would have to be in the right place at the right time to catch the culprits, which is very rarely the case. But giving them greater powers may help.

At a national level, perhaps those who make our laws should be listening to local residents and reviewing or repealing the 2003 Licensing Act.

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