Agenda and minutes

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were none.

General procedure points and hearing procedure for the meeting.

Members noted the procedure to be used to conduct the hearing.

The Director of Planning and Development submitted a report for the Licensing Act 2003 Sub-Committee to advise members of an application to vary the premises licence by virtue of S34 Licensing Act 2003, for Lord Nelson, Out Lane, Croston, Leyland, PR26 9HJ.

Members were advised that the application had been brought before the Sub Committee due to a relevant representation being received. Members would need to determine the application in accordance with the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003.

The Premises Licence Holder (PLH), Punch Taverns Ltd, was represented by their legal advisor, Ewan Macgregor. Nicola Jacques, the tenant and the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) John Russell were also present at the hearing. Also present was Other Persons: Mrs Anne Peet, who had submitted a representation in respect of the application.

The Licensing Team Leader (Enforcement) explained that the premises had been licensed since 2005 following its conversion from a Justice’s Licence. Following the death of the licence holder in 2015, this lapsed and a new licence had been granted. Since then, this had been transferred and varied several times, with its most recent transfer in 2015 and members noted that a copy of the licence was appended to the report.

Members were advised that the premises was surrounded on most sides by residential properties, and since re-opening following the relaxation of COVID restrictions the Council had received a number of noise complaints regarding the use of the beer garden on Sunday afternoons for live music. Several joint visits had been made between the Police, Licensing and Environmental Health, resulting in the application to vary the licence.

The PLH proposed to make the following amendments to the licence:

·         The removal of Condition 6.ii – Noise from the premises shall not exceed ambient background noise at the boundary

·         The removal of Condition 6.ii.a – Where noise from the premises exceeds ambient background noise at the boundary of the premises, steps shall be taken to reduce the volume accordingly.

·         The addition of the following Condition: Any entertainment held within the external area of the premises shall only take place between the months of April and September (inclusive) and shall cease by 9pm on any day.

·         The addition of the following Condition: Any event held within the external area shall be documented by a risk assessment regarding preventing any noise disturbance to any nearby properties. Such risk assessment shall be held at the premises for no less than six months and shall be produced to a responsible authority on request.

In response to a member enquiry, it was confirmed that a noise complaint had been made to Environmental Health and information and diary sheets had been provided. However, as the diary sheets had not been returned there had been no basis for installing noise equipment.

The Chair requested that an aerial view of the premises on Google Maps be shown on the screen for Members to consider, which was agreed by all parties in attendance.

The Chair queried what would be considered to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.13