Licensing applications and issues

Applicant name: Sachcithananthamoorthy Satheeswaran   Premises: Bobby's News, 457 Gloucester Road, Horfield, Bristol.   Application received date: 17 October 2012  Application ref number: 12/03955/PREM
Proposed relevant licensable activities to be carried on or from the premises:
Sale of Alcohol Monday to Sunday 07:00 – 23:00   Opening hours applied for: Monday to Sunday 07:00 - 23:00

On behalf of the Bishopston Society, I would like to register our objection to the above application.  This appears to be a very similar application to  11/07007/PREM which was refused earlier in the year although the current application is to sell alcohol for longer hours.

Firstly, the premises fall within the Gloucester Road Cumulative Impact Area (CIA). The CIA, which was asked for by the Police, was adopted after much consultation on 1st August 2010 as a result of significant public nuisance in the area associated with licensed premises.  The policy for CIAs is based on evidence that, in particular, the sale of alcohol has led to a fall in the quality of life for local residents as a result of noise, littering, vandalism, public disorder, criminal damage and other forms of anti-social behaviour including vomiting and public urination

Under the terms of the CIA policy, it is assumed that the impact of licensed premises is cumulative and that, in particular, it is not always possible to determine the source of the individuals causing the public nuisance. It is therefore accepted that objectors to new or extended licences do not need to provide specific evidence of public nuisance attached to a particular premises although  a short  log of incidents  is attached. We have no doubt that the opening hours sought through this application would exacerbate the existing problems by providing more late night alcohol for sale in a mixed area, with residential properties in close proximity. Would it not counter the Council's own Licensing Policy to approve an application of this nature?  

The CIA was imposed on the area partly in recognition of the fact that alcohol misuse has resulted in chronic antisocial behaviour listed above which has had an unacceptable nuisance impact on local residents. More hours in which the purchase of  alcohol within the CIA on the Gloucester Road is allowed would have a negative impact on Crime and Disorder, which is one of the licensing objectives  within the CIA

Whilst the application for selling of alcohol may be a new facility, it is one that was previously refused by the Licensing Committee and in any event it is not one which is desired in the area and will, we fear, risk further nuisance and public disorder. You may be aware of the 'normal' Saturday and worse still Sunday morning squalor and unpleasantness which now extends from Stokes Croft, up the Cheltenham Road continuing up the CIA of the Gloucester Road.

We  request that this application is refused.