Extending Brighton College’s alcohol licence could attract more visitors to the private school’s events, its neighbours fear.
During a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel hearing today (Wednesday 10 September), representatives from the private school in Eastern Road assured the neighbours there were no plans to increase the number of events.
The application is to extend the footprint of the alcohol licence to allow sales at the new 400-seat Richard Cairns theatre and the 100-capacity Sarah Abrahams Music School.
Performances used to take place in the school’s grand hall, covered by the existing licence which permits alcohol sales every day from 11am to 1am.
The variation on the licence would allow alcohol sales in the two additional buildings from 6-10pm.
There were no objections from either Sussex Police or Brighton and Hove City Council’s licensing department, but 10 neighbours shared their concerns and 227 people signed a petition against the application.
Kemptown United member and resident Sarah Dawson, who submitted the petition, spoke against the application, stating Brighton College is an international business that is disrupting the community.
She argued that by expanding its alcohol licence, the school was impacting local businesses.
Mrs Dawson said: “I’ve had representation from local community businesses, including the church. These are organisations that rely heavily on community sales.
“The further expansion of a large international business does nothing to help the community.
“We’re in a conservation area, we have an organisation that claims to support the community, my question is how does the increase of commercial activity, causing potential further disruption and alcohol sales, actually help the community? I don’t think it does.”
Another neighbour, John Coulthard who is also a member of Kemptown United, spoke about the impact of evening events on the neighbourhood.
He said during evening events the college’s visitors “disregard” the disabled bays and residents-only parking in zone H.
He said: “We do call parking enforcement, but quite often that takes a bit of time and rarely supports the residents, particularly in the evening.
“My particular concern is that this is a residential area. These are commercial activities and the impact of the commercial activity lands mainly upon the residential community.”
Brighton College’s director for projects at UK schools, Steve Patten said the school used to hold events in the great hall which had a much larger capacity than the new theatre building.
He said the college had no plans to increase the number of performances, but was simply moving the venue.
The college’s current licence allows alcohol sales later than needed at more venues on site than it needs.
Mr Patten said: “The events we love to host are for local families and the local community. The amendments to the licence we currently have with enable us to continue serving a glass of wine before and during intervals of performances, but obviously not long into the night.
“We’ve reviewed this following our recent planning application where we understood the desire from councillors for us to be a better neighbour and to reach out more.
“This is part of that process, and while we understand the concerns of local residents, we feel our direct response to them should alleviate their concerns.”
The college’s planning permission requires a minimum of 14 performances open to the general public each year.
Brighton College’s head of health, safety and security Viki Miller, is the designated premises supervisor, who has responsibility for alcohol sales.
She confirmed all alcohol is securely stored off the main college site away from pupils and only fully-trained staff are allowed to sell it during events.
The panel – councillors John Hewitt, Sam Parrott and Kerry Pickett – retired to make their decision which is due to be made public within five working days.
