Agenda and minutes

Announcement on procedural matters.

The Chairman opened the meeting, introduced the members of the Sub-Committee panel, the officers in attendance, and outlined the procedures for the hearing.  The applicants, interested parties and respondents were also introduced and Mr Love’s solicitor, Mr Stephen Thomas, indicated that Mr Love was unable to attend due to sickness

Apologies for absence as reported.

No apologies were received.

To receive any declarations of interest by members in items on the agenda.  For any advice on declarations of interest, please contact the Monitoring Officer.

No declarations of interest were made by members at the meeting.

Mr Trevor Horner, Licensing Officer, first confirmed that all parties present at the hearing had had sufficient time to read their reports. Mr Horner then summarised the facts, relevant representations and matters relevant to the local authority licensing policy statement and statutory guidance in relation to the application, including the previous adjournment.  This information had been provided in more detail within the agenda report. No questions were put to Mr Horner.

Mr Duncan Haynes, Environmental Protection Team Leader, representing as the Applicant on behalf of the Mid Kent Environmental Health then presented the application as set out in the Agenda, as well as the options open to the Panel. Other points included:

-       During a Without Prejudice hearing on 23 November, it was agreed that a suitable Noise Management Plan being agreed upon would be acceptable to their team, should the Licensing Sub-Committee Panel agree to this approach. A Noise Management Plan had since been drafted, as per the Addendum, and was acceptable to the Environmental Protection Team for consideration.

-       The Sub-Committee Panel was to be made aware that if the Panel agreed to the Noise Management Plan, there would be a period of adjustment to tweak the plan to the real-world environment, as no Plan worked perfectly first time round.

-       The Environmental Protection team felt that the implementation of the Noise Management Plan as a Licence Condition, subject to any tweaking, would be sufficient.

No questions were put to Mr Haynes.

Councillor Lance Goodship, Councillor for Sherwood ward, spoke as an interested party representing his Ward constituents in support of the review. Points included:

-       Large events at Colebrook were the most escalated events he had dealt with as a Ward Councillor, with over 700 direct and indirect complaints received from residents.

-       A Change.org petition had been compiled by a Sherwood resident of over 300 residents objecting to the Venue and its’ events.

-       He had received numerous complaints from shift workers, especially those working at Pembury Hospital, who had experienced extreme sleep deprivation over multiple weekends of live music events at Colebrook Park, causing severe impact to their effectiveness at work.

-       Knights Park/Knights Wood had approximately 2000 new residents, predominantly young families, directly opposite Colebrook Park, and the noise produced by the events affected them adversely, especially with young children being kept up to 3am by the noise.

-       Bank Holiday weekends had been particularly bad, as residents had to keep windows closed and weren’t able to use their gardens due to the noise.

-       Making Licensing complaints had been burdensome and time-consuming, and so Cllr Goodship believed many complaints hadn’t made it to Committee.

-       The Councillor and his family had been personally and directly impacted by the events as a resident living in the vicinity of Colebrook Park.

-       Called for a full revocation of the premises’ licence.

Mr Stephen Thomas, Solicitor for Premises Licence Holder Mr Love, responded to Cllr Goodship by stating that the Petition was not accepted as valid  ...  view the full minutes text for item LSC11/19