Brighton and Hove City Council has been challenged to stick by its guns and refuse plans for the latest new off licence in Kemp Town after another was granted permission.
Last week, Lord of the Wines in Upper St James’s Street was given permission to sell booze until midnight.
Crucially, this store is just outside the council’s cumulative impact zone, within which its licensing panel is allowed to take into account the number of licencsed premises when deciding new applications.
On Wednesday, the panel is due to decide another application by Tipple on St James’s Street – within the zone.
Chair of the local action team Chris Cooke has now challenged the council to “show rarely seen resolve” and turn this down.
Mr Cooke said: “Does the panel have any teeth or is the cumulative impact zone just meaningless in the struggle to deal with the anti-social behaviour associated with the weekly opening of off-licences on each street corner?
“Tipple is within the zone, and has been opposed by the police and residents alike. They are asking for exactly the same hours that Lord of the Wines applied for (although Lord of the Wines’ was reduced from a 4am closure to midnight).
“As Chair of the LAT I challenge the council to turn this application down and thereby show rarely seen resolve to tackling head on the booze culture and its inherent problems in our city. I await June 23 with interest.”
Last year, the panel turned down an application from Tesco to sell alcohol in its new St James’s Street store, but this was overturned by Brighton Magistrates.
