Agenda item

The meeting was a hearing under the Licensing Act 2003.

The Chair introduced the members of the Sub Committee and the officers present.

The Sub Committee’s Legal Advisor, Giles Salter, outlined the procedure for the meeting.

The Sub Committee considered the application for the grant of a premises licence for a trailer bar situated on the paved area at the eastern end of Queen’s Drive near Orcombe Point in Exmouth.

The applicant, present and entitled to make representations, was Mr Oliver Bainbridge. 

The interested parties, present and entitled to make representations, were Cllr Graham Deasy, Cllr Brian Bailey, Cllr Nick Hookway, Mrs Ava Wood and Mrs Dierdre Mackness.

The Licensing Officer summarised the application as set out in the report.

Responses to questions for the Licensing Officer from Councillors included the following points:

·         There was no record of any complaints from the previous two occasions that licenses had been granted for the trailer bar at this location.

·         There was no condition offered in relation to two members of the staff being on duty during licensable hours.

·         The applicant had reached an agreed position with the police on the previous application. The police had not given any specific reason but had requested conditions, which were agreed to.

·         The police responded almost every time to consultation, and Licensing Officers had not received any representation from them on this application.

Responses to questions for the Licensing Officer from the interested persons included the following points:

·         Applications in previous years were for Saturday 3^rd and Sunday 4^th June, and for Saturdays and Sundays between 12^th August and 3 September 2023, 12.00pm to 7.00pm.

·         Anything offered in section 18 of the application form would form conditions on the licence.  The applicant would be bound to adhere to those conditions and they would be enforceable by the Licensing Authority.

There were no questions for the Licensing Officer from the Applicant.

The applicant made the case for the application and highlighted the following points:

·         The applicant ran a brewery and three pubs on the Exe estuary, and had also run numerous events in Exmouth and knew the area very well.

·         There had been lots of objections to events, which the applicant had always listened to and acted upon appropriately, and none of the statutory authorities had ever come back with any negatives about his events or businesses in any way.

·         The applicant employed thirty local people in business, many of them young people who went on to build their careers in hospitality.

·         The beer was expensive, high quality craft beer which tended to be interesting and nuanced, and differentiated from what was sold at the off licence further along the seafront.

·         The applicant knew Orcombe Point well, often walking in that area and he understood the concerns around the site.  He observed that antisocial behaviour had escalated since the introduction of a ban on campervans staying overnight, their presence having previously mitigated and balanced the misbehaviour.

·         It was the applicant’s view, from his experience, that putting licensees in such locations was part of the solution rather than the problem, given the legal framework in which they had to conduct themselves.  It meant that they could help to enforce rules and improve the environment and general behaviour at a location, and have ownership over the space, ensuring it was a nicer and safer place to be.

Responses to questions from the Sub Committee included the following points:

·         The intention was to relocate staff to operate from the trailer bar in the event of good weather when people were flocking to the beach and the applicant’s pub in town was deserted.  The initiative had to be financially viable and applying for 60 days meant that the applicant could make last minute decisions to put the trailer bar on site, dependent on the weather.

·         The trailer would be removed from the site every day when trading had finished.

·         Prices for the craft beer would start at £11.00 per litre, compared with approximately £5.00 for 2 litres at a supermarket.

·         The beer would be sold in biodegradable plastic glasses, which the applicant’s contractor could dispose of properly.  Water and soft drinks would be sold in cans.

·         A Ring recording device would be in place at the trailer, with a cloud-based recording facility.

·         The application was not to be judged by the lack of toilet provision at Orcombe Point.  Toilets were not the applicant’s responsibility and the situation was not made worse by the temporary presence of the trailer bar. 

The interested persons put questions to the applicant.  Questions and the responses included the following points:

·         The applicant was a licensee of 30 years and had a lot of experience in dealing with challenging behaviour, and had found that there was a way of approaching people which worked and a way that did not work.  The applicant would appropriately intervene with a view to addressing low level antisocial behaviour and would call the police in the event of illegal activity. 

·         The applicant would not be at the trailer bar all the time but there would always be staff who he had trained and had his trust in dealing with situations which might arise.

·         The trailer bar would most likely attract people who had a good reason to be at Orcombe Point and who were friendly, gentle, and interested in buying local and supporting local businesses. 

·         The applicant had asked to bring in all conditions from the previous application into the current application.

·         Bins would be provided for the plastic containers to be taken back to the pub to be recycled by the contractor, and staff would carry out a 50m litter sweep.

The interested persons made their case which included the following points:

·         It would be difficult at short notice for authorities to put in place appropriate measures that may be required to prevent crime and disorder.

·         The location for the trailer bar was a designated Public Spaces Protection Order area; this, and the proposed application, did not reconcile.

·         The trailer bar could increase crowding at that end of the beach, potentially compromising public safety as it was not clear that Exmouth had the resources locally to cope with that.

·         The location had an established history of public nuisance and was in close proximity to a residential area.  The Town Council had been asked to put up CCTV to try to prevent issues in that area, and the Town Council’s Planning Committee remained to be convinced that the presence of the applicant and his staff would reduce the risk of public nuisance occurring.

·         The location was a family friendly area at a quieter end of town and the presence of available alcohol would send out the wrong message to a generation of children. 

·         People who had been drinking were at higher risk of harm from entering the water, and it was questioned whether the applicant had sought advice from organisations involved in water safety.

·         The lack of drinking and eating establishments at Orcombe Point were part of what made that end of the beach special and a welcome change from the hustle and bustle elsewhere.

·         The trailer bar would be an inappropriate use of the area for a number of reasons including parking issues, lack of toilet provision, and the open-ended nature of the application which had the potential to exacerbate antisocial behaviour. 

·         The specific days that the trailer bar was to be operational needed to be specified as a condition of the licence in order to give residents and authorities certainty.

·         The previous two applications were for sale of alcohol up to 7.00pm and the current application sought to extend that time to 9.00pm, which was problematic.

·         It was suggested that there should be no music either outside or from inside of the trailer.

·         It would be appropriate to reduce the number of days the trailer bar could be operational so that area did not acquire a status as a destination where alcohol was served consistently.

The applicant responded that the first application he had put in was for a different location; the Council’s Beach Safety Officer had had a conversation with the applicant at that time about water safety, and had had no concerns.

In response to questions from the Sub Committee, the interested persons advised:

·         The Town Council currently had no plans to put CCTV in the area.

·         There was no bar at the location when disorder occurred on the beach and seafront during the pandemic.

There were no questions for the independent persons from the applicant.

The applicant delivered his closing statement and stated that he was a resident himself and understood how local residents felt.  His intention was for people to be made aware through his social media notifications when the bar was going to be on site.  He reiterated that none of the statutory authorities had offered any objection or comments at all and there was very little evidence regarding the impact that the bar had.  The bar has been at Orcombe Point before with no issues but it was a changing environment and he hoped that the sub committee could take a view that by the nature of the way the licence was granted, the situation would be regularly reviewed and there would be options to bring some evidence in future years.  In the past, the applicant has not seen a financial return from the trailer bar and he was keen to explore what the conditions were to make this work, with decisions based on evidence and facts.

The Chair thanked everyone for attending and advised that the Sub Committee’s decision would be notified to all within five working days.