Agenda and minutes

Councillor Seacome was elected as the Chairman.

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Hillview Social Club, Hillview Community Centre, Hulbert Crescent, Up Hatherley, Cheltenham

Louis Krog, Senior Licensing Officer introduced the report as circulated with the agenda.  The report detailed that at the previous Licensing sub committee on the 21 March 2011 the sub committee decided to remove the sale of alcohol from the premises licence and the club premises certificate.  This decision was taken by the Sub Committee having considered all the evidence the Sub Committee and determining that the licensing objectives were not being met by the Club.

Hillview Social Club lodged an appeal of the sub committee’s decision.  At a pre-trial determination hearing on the 3 June 2011 at Gloucester Magistrates’ Court the Hillview Social club explained that they had put in place a number of measures to address the concerns that were raised by the sub committee.

In light of the additional steps undertaken by the Club, the Police had indicated that they would have no objection to the Club being licensed for the sale of alcohol.

Louis Krog confirmed that at the hearing, the Magistrates’ Court agreed to adjourn the appeal on the basis that the case would be remitted back to the Council for further consideration.

The Social Club had submitted the following documents which were attached at Appendix A.

• A covering letter;
• List of measures implemented;
• An updated Hillview Community Association constitution; and
• An updated Hillview social Club constitution.

Mr Barry Turner and Councillor Roger Whyborn attended the meeting to speak in support of the licence.

A brief discussion took place about whether the premises still required a Club premises certificate or not.  Mr Turner confirmed that a Premises licence was required and that they no longer wanted a Club premises certificate.  Louis Krog confirmed if this was the case the Club premises certificate must be returned to the Licensing office as this was a formal procedure.

Councillor Roger Whyborn spoke on behalf of Mr Turner.

Councillor Whyborn read the following statement;

“We recognise that the death of Nigel Russell was a serious and tragic event and it is clear that this event prompted the original Police request to review the licence.  Nigel’s death occurred in hospital following excessive drinking both at The Greatfield and at the Social Club.  Following that event, the club took a number of measures including a voluntary restriction to limit alcohol sales to midnight and certain high alcohol drinks were withdrawn from sale.  A firm ban on drinking games was enforced upon the premises and tighter diary record keeping regarding visitors, incidents, accidents, who is on duty etc was introduced.

Following the death and subsequent Police investigation, the then Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) left.  In our view she felt and was out of her depth.  It is believed that significant Police feedback to the club was lost as a result of changes in personnel and the fact that it was impossible to communicate with the Police in the run up to the hearing on 21 March 2011.  At any rate some of the additional recommendations came as news to the club  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.