To receive apologies for absence (to include reasons, where appropriate) from

Members / Officers.

None

To receive Declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from members/ officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from the 1st September 2008.

None

Railway Tavern, Derwen Road, Bridgend

The Chairperson invited all those in attendance to the meeting, and the necessary introductions were made.

The Licensing and Registration Officer advised that there were 3 Objection Notices submitted by the South Wales Police in respect of Temporary Event Notices submitted in respect of the above premises. She added that a procedure had been circulated to all parties present on the procedure to be followed at today’s Hearing.

She referred to the agenda and accompanying papers, adding that 2 further letters had been circulated by the South Wales Police to the management of the Railway Inn, one dated 11 July 2014 and the other dated 9 July 2015. The Licensing and Registration Officer asked the representatives of the Railway Inn if they had any objection to these letters being tabled as part of the Police submission, to which their Solicitor replied that they were not. Some of the information in this correspondence had been redacted.

The Licensing and Registration Officer then outlined the nature of the TEN applied for by the Premises User at the Railway Inn, Mr Spencer Morgan, which related to an extension of hours for the sale by retail of alcohol and the provision of regulated entertainment on the dates and during the hours detailed in paragraphs 4.1 of the report. Copies of the terms outlining the TEN had been served upon the Police and the local authority to which the Police had made an objection.

As this gave a resume of the TEN so applied for the Chairperson asked PC Ellis to present his case on behalf of the South Wales Police.

He then gave the following Statement:-

“I refer to the above notification and wish to inform you that application is made on behalf of the Chief Officer of Police to object to the notice as it is believed that extending the hours would undermine the licensing objectives relating to the prevention of crime and disorder and public nuisance as set out in the Act.

The Railway Inn is a public house and it is highly significant that the premises is situated within the “Saturation Area” of Bridgend town centre which is subject of Bridgend County Borough Councils “Statement of licensing policy.”

The area contains a mere three streets yet has the highest concentration of public houses, nightclubs, restaurants and late night refreshment houses anywhere in the borough and therefore experiences the highest volume of pedestrian and vehicular traffic and consequently the highest number of reported incidents.

As a consequence numerous premises within this area have been subject of the review process under Section 51 of the Act due to the number and seriousness of the occurrences recorded coupled with a failure to adhere to the conditions of licences.

In this area alone more premises have been reviewed than in any other within the Borough.

Those premises which did not have their licences revoked had restricted conditions appended to the authorisation including curtailment of their operating hours.

The Railway Inn  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.