The owners of a Brighton off-licence sought permission to extend their hours but were rebuffed by a panel of councillors.
Baseem Karkour, 29, and Kinan Daoud, 24, applied to Brighton and Hove City Council to open Wine Me Up, in Lewes Road, at 7am every day instead of 10am.
And they wanted to sell alcoholic drinks until 3am at weekends and 2am for the rest of the week rather than keep to their current 1am closing time.
Their off-licence – owned by B&K Wine Store Ltd – is in Lewes Road in a wide area that the council has designated a “special stress area” because of drink-related crime and anti-social behaviour. Tougher licensing rules apply.
After a council licensing panel hearing last month, the council wrote to the owners to notify them that their application for extended hours had not been granted.
The licensing panel felt that the owners did not “address or appreciate” council policy relating to the area or show that there were exceptional circumstances that would justify extended hours.
The council said: “The panel shares the police and licensing authority concerns that this is a very challenging area, with high levels of crime and disorder, and any extension of hours is likely to add to problems already experienced in the area.
“This includes any extension of hours for the sale of alcohol in the morning as the premises is close to The Level which has issues of street drinking.”
At the panel hearing, on Wednesday 20 July, police licensing officer Hannah Staplehurst said that, within a quarter of a mile of the shop, Sussex Police received 1,714 incident reports, resulting in 518 recorded crimes in the year to mid-June.
The shop is in the St Peter’s and North Laine electoral ward which, the panel was told, ranked worst in Brighton and Hove for drink-related incidents and criminal damage and second-worst for violence.
Independent councillor Anne Pissaridou and Green councillor Zoe John raised concerns about drug paraphernalia found on sale during an inspection by council licensing officer Donna Lynsdale.
Ms Lynsdale said that the sale of such items, including “crack pipes, grinders, spoons, bongs and tourniquets”, is a legal “grey area” and promoting such items was “not responsible”.
Mr Karkour told the panel – chaired by Conservative councillor Dee Simson – that he had removed all the items and sent a picture of them in the bin.
The council said in its decision letter: “The panel acknowledges that the applicants have taken steps to rectify breaches of conditions and removal of paraphernalia which could be used for drugs and hopes this will remain the case.
“However, overall, the panel does not have confidence in the ability of the applicants to promote the licensing objectives in this location if the extension were granted and is also concerned about the relative inexperience of the designated premises supervisor (Mr Karkour).”
