Brighton seafront venue asks council to relax drinks licence conditions

Brewery company Free Haus wants to remove a restriction on its gift shop alcohol licence as it seeks to make the business viable.

It was granted the licence by Brighton and Hove City Council just over a year ago for the Brighton Bier gift shop between the i360 and the Rampion Visitor Centre in King’s Road Arches.

Now the company has applied to the council to remove licence conditions that limit sales to Brighton Bier branded products and limit on-site consumption to tasting events.

Instead, it wants to offer customers specialist craft beers, ciders and premium cocktails in cans as well as natural and Sussex wines.

Free Haus director Stephen Whitehurst, 49, has applied to remove the condition that restricts the business to pre-booked events for up to 12 people no more than 18 times a year.

Instead, he wants to be able to serve drinks to people seated at tables and to permit people to drink while standing at pre-booked events.

Sussex Police and the council licensing department have objected to the application but three neighbouring businesses have written in support of the application.

Free Haus said: “Having traded through summer 2022, we found the license too restrictive in terms of product mix and limitations that prevented us even being able to effectively market and advertise the shop.

“We, therefore, closed the shop in October 2022 as it wasn’t viable to trade.”

The licensed hours would remain the same – from 11am to 8pm – but Free Haus wants to extend the opening time by 30 minutes so the business would close at 8.30pm.

The company said that it used “temporary events notice” to enable the business to serve customers at weekends last summer and there was no trouble.

Free Haus added: “We believe this helps to demonstrate the customers we will attract will not cause any disturbance or anti-social behaviour and so not detract from licensing objectives.

“We have discussed (this) with the Seafront Office and they are happy for us to operate both off and on-sales if you are willing to grant us the variation to the licence to serve customers in this manner.”

Inspector Mark Rebourn, from Sussex Police, said that the force objected to the application because the premises were within the busy centre of Brighton where tougher council licensing policies applied.

This was also the reason given by the council’s licensing team. The area was saturated with licensed premises and the council’s policies were intended to help reduce drink-related crime and anti-social behaviour.

Inspector Rebourn said that, during a licensing inspection last October, officers found several breaches of the licence which had since been rectified.

He said that the venue was in Regency ward, which had the highest rate of violent crime in Brighton and Hove.

Neighbouring businesses sent letters of support although the council redacted key details. They said that the Brighton Bier shop had not caused any anti-social behaviour and had improved the feel of the area.

The council is due to decide the application at a licensing panel hearing. It is due to start at 10am on Monday 17 April and is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.