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Licensing (2003 Act) Sub-Committee - Tuesday 10th September 2024 10.00 a.m.

September 10, 2024 View on council website  Watch video of meeting or read trancript
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Summary

The Licensing Subcommittee decided to amend the existing conditions on the premises licence for Woodgrange Supermarket at 5 Woodgrange Road. One of the new conditions that was added related to the strength of the beers, lagers and ciders that could be sold, which will be 6.5% ABV, and another required that the licence holder keep invoices for alcohol purchases for three months and make them available to council officers on request.

Underage Sale of Alcohol

The meeting was to review the premises licence for Woodgrange Supermarket following an application by Newham Council’s Licensing Team. The review was triggered after Trading Standards officers conducted an underage test purchase operation at the premises on 30 June 2024, during which two underage police cadets purchased two cans of San Marino. The seller, Mr Sadulov, did not ask for any identification. Mr Pervaiz, the Trading Standards Officer who conducted the test purchase, said that when he returned to the premises after the sale to speak to the seller, Mr Sadulov was unable to provide a refusals log and had very little knowledge about Challenge 25.

The premises licence holder, Mr Cikla, explained that the sale had taken place when he had left Mr Sadulov, who he described as a part-time member of staff who normally stacked shelves and fetched stock, to look after the till while he went to the cash and carry. He said that the regular member of staff who was supposed to be on the till had been unable to work because he was abroad receiving emergency dental treatment. He said that he regretted asking Mr Sadulov to serve customers.

Mr Cikla and his licensing agent, Mr Carter, said that following the test purchase, all staff, including Mr Sadulov, had completed training provided by Atlas1 on Challenge 25, the four licensing objectives, and the legal requirements for the retail sale of alcohol. Mr Sadulov and another member of staff, Mr Atabinin, had also completed the BIIAB Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders and had submitted applications for their own personal licences. Mr Carter argued that the underage sale should be treated as an isolated incident, and pointed to a previous test purchase at the premises that had been carried out in February 2023 by Trading Standards, which had been passed.

Antisocial Behaviour

Mr Pearson, a Newham Council Neighbourhood Community Safety Officer, said that the area in which the shop was located had been experiencing high levels of antisocial behaviour. He said that the area, which included the alleyway at the rear of the premises, was frequently used by street drinkers who left litter and urinated in the area, causing distress to residents. Mr Pearson said that since December 2023 he had issued a number of Community Protection Warning Notices under the terms of Newham Council’s Public Spaces Protection Order to street drinkers in the alleyway, but that the effectiveness of the order was limited because most of the alleyway was on private land.

Mr Pearson’s statement, which was also supported by the Metropolitan Police, said that he believed that most of the street drinkers in the area had purchased the alcohol they were consuming from Woodgrange Supermarket. He referred to the large window display at the front of the shop, which was largely given over to alcohol advertising, and said that this was “an environmental cue to chronic alcohol use”. He also referred to photographs that had been taken in the area, which showed empty beer cans. Mr Pearson said “The cans that the drinkers use are quite distinctive and are not the brand's types seen on sale in Tesco or Iceland”, both of which were also located in Woodgrange Road.

Mr Carter, Mr Cikla’s licensing agent, disputed Mr Pearson’s statement and said that there was no evidence linking the street drinking in the area with sales from the shop. He said that one of the photographs referred to by Mr Pearson showed an empty can of Black Storm cider, which was not stocked by Woodgrange Supermarket, but was available from a nearby off-licence, Signal News. Mr Carter also said that there were a number of other off-licences in the vicinity of the alleyway, including Tesco and Iceland, and that neither Mr Pearson’s statement, nor the photographic evidence, suggested that Woodgrange Supermarket was the source of the alcohol being drunk.

Mr Carter argued that the street drinking in the area was more likely to be related to the fact that the alleyway was an “open space” that could be “gained access to throughout the day” rather than because of the location of Woodgrange Supermarket or the types of alcohol being sold there.

Mr Cikla said that he did not condone street drinking and had refused to serve a number of customers he suspected of being street drinkers, many of whom, he said, were elderly men. He said that he also tried to discourage street drinkers from congregating outside the premises. He pointed to his shop’s refusals log, which showed a number of recent refusals to people who had been attempting to purchase high-strength beers.

New Conditions

Mr Jackson, a Senior Licensing Enforcement Officer for Newham Council, said that the existing conditions on the premises licence were not “robust” enough and he suggested a number of additional conditions that could be added to the licence in order to address the concerns that had been raised, including:

  • A requirement that beers, lagers and ciders should not exceed 6% ABV.
  • A requirement that spirits should not be sold in bottles of less than 35cl.
  • A requirement that bottled and canned beers, lagers and ciders should be sold in packs of no less than two.
  • A requirement that all alcohol products should be marked with a label stating the name and postcode of the shop.
  • A requirement that a personal licence holder should be present at the premises at all times.
  • A requirement that outside of permitted hours all alcohol should be stored in lockable cabinets.
  • A requirement that a written record of all incidents occurring at, or immediately outside, the premises should be kept.
  • A requirement that the CCTV system should be upgraded and additional cameras installed.
  • A requirement that all staff should complete refresher training every three months.

Mr Carter said that Mr Cikla was willing to agree to some of these new conditions, including the upgraded CCTV system and the requirement that staff complete refresher training, but he argued that some of the other conditions were unnecessary. In particular, he did not want to agree to the suggested reduction in the maximum strength of beers, lagers and ciders that could be sold, and he argued against a condition preventing the sale of single cans. He said that there was a demand for high-strength beers and ciders and that preventing single can sales would not prevent street drinking as people could simply “club together” to purchase multipacks. Mr Carter argued that the new conditions should only address the underage sale and should not be used as an excuse to “add a raft of conditions which will make it harder for my client to operate [a] profitable business”.

After considering all of the evidence presented, the Licensing Subcommittee decided that it would add a number of new conditions to the existing premises licence. The majority of the new conditions were the same as those suggested by Mr Jackson. However, the Subcommittee decided that the maximum strength for beers, lagers and ciders would be 6.5% ABV rather than the 6% suggested by Mr Jackson. The Subcommittee also decided to add a condition requiring that Mr Cikla keep invoices for alcohol for three months and make these available to council officers on request.

  1. Atlas is a training provider that specialises in providing licensing qualifications. ↩

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