Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting

There were no minutes to be signed at this meeting

To receive any apologies for absence

There were no apologies for absence.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interests.

The procedure for the Sub-Committee was exercised by the Chairman.

The Sub-Committee were required to consider an application to vary a premises licence for the following premises:

Ashridge House

Ashridge Park

Little Gaddesden

Berkhamsted

Hertfordshire

The Chairman asked if all legal requirements had been complied with and N March confirmed they had.

The Chairman asked N March to introduce the report.

N March – Aware that Members and those who have attended the hearing have read the report. Drawing your attention to the key points in the report and the application, page 16 of the report highlights what has been applied for by the applicant. This includes licensable activities, many of which are 24 hours per day, 7 days per week or having the option to use 24 hours, 7 days per week or with restricted hours outside, finishing at midnight and starting at 8:00am. The Table on page 16 of the report summarises these proposals.

This is a new application and although the premises already has a premises licence, this is a grant of a new licence, so the existing licence is not a relevant consideration for this application.

There have been 10 objections received in total, 1 objection from the Parish Council and 9 objections from residents.  No objections have been received from Responsible Authorities who were notified of the application as they must be. There have been temporary events notices given by the premises over time, dating back to 2005 and no record of any formal complaints received through Licensing regarding those events which have taken place.

The concerns raised in relation to some of the objections have generally involved specific issues which cannot be considered in relation to the application because we can only look at licensable activities.  Some examples of these irrelevant issues are the use of fireworks which is not a regulated activity, road safety issues which the applicant would not be responsible for, the need for a licence and the fact that it is in area of natural beauty which is more of a planning concern.

Page 19 of the report shows the key concerns that are relevant in determining the application and looking at the objections received, they appear to relate to concerns about nuisance caused by noise, litter arising from licensable activities and other associated nuisance that could reasonably be associated with licensable activities.

A final point in relation to the application is although the application applies for a lot of activities for a long period of time, due to deregulation a fair amount of these activities wouldn’t be regulated until past eleven o’clock at night. Some of them are associated with education and so they wouldn’t be considered regulated in that sense.  The full objections and full application are contained within the report.

He welcomed questions from the committee.

Cllr Bassadone – The building was originally sold off in 1925 and is owned by EF Corporate Education Limited, however the application is under the name Hult Executive Education, please explain this?

N March – As long as the person applying  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.