A new branch of Tesco has been granted a drinks licence despite its location in an area where the council tends to turn down proposed off-licences.
The supermarket chain persuaded Brighton and Hove City Council that the new Tesco Express branch, in Western Road, opposite Churchill Square, Brighton, would not add to alcohol-related problems in the area.
The store is due to open in the vacant 194 Western Road, Brighton, formerly Currys, between Costa and Marks and Spencer. It will be able to sell drink from 8am to 10pm daily.
The decision to grant Tesco a licence was made by a council licensing panel made up of three councillors – Julie Cattell, Lucy Helliwell and Tobias Sheard.
The council’s decision letter said that Tesco had agreed to accept stringent conditions after discussions with Sussex Police.
The force usually objects to new drinks licences in the centre of Brighton which is subject to policy restrictions because of the high number of licensed businesses in the area.
The conditions on the premises licence include keeping alcohol behind a screen, providing staff with training every 12 weeks and employing a door supervisor on duty during licensing hours.
At least two staff members, a security guard and a team leader, will have body-worn video cameras.
The decision letter said: “We rely on the police to be the council’s main source of advice on matters relating to the promotion of the crime and disorder licensing objective.
“Their lack of objection together with agreement of unusually onerous conditions leads us to conclude that they do not anticipate that this application will add to the problems of cumulative impact in the area.”
As a Tesco Express store, the branch would stock about 5,000 lines, of which between 70 and 110 would be alcohol.
Disappointing backtrack.
Inevitable. It was foolish to contest the application. Did they really think they were going to deny Tesco a licence? I doubt it.
Once the police ceased to have any objections as their conditions were met by Tesco the council really didn’t have much choice but to grant the application.
You can’t use “law & order” as a reason to deny if if the police say there are no issues. If the council did that then Tesco would just appeal, the decision reversed and the council a large bill for legal fees.
@Atticus the procedure is if there is an application then there needs to be a hearing to determine it. The application wasn’t contested it was tested against the licensing criteria.
As usual Chris, you make complete sense.
@ChrisC. Most of what you say is correct, however you can only claim legal fees against another party if it is deemed they have acted unreasonably. The council chose to act reasonably by granting the license and were always likely to do so.
Hopefully puts some of the scummy off-licences around the area out of business.
There are too many places that sell booze.
We should be more like Saudi Arabia and ban the stuff.
Whilst we are at it, a few more of their ideas are quite good too