Purpose

Application for a New Premises Licence Under
the Licensing Act 2003

Content

RE: Licensing Act 2003 – Licensing Panel Hearing Notification
of the Determination of Panel.
 

Licensing panel hearing held virtually via Teams on Monday
2nd June 2025 in respect of the application for a new
premises licence for Burger King, Goldstone Retail Park, Newtown
Road, Hove BN3 7PN.

 
The panel has read the
report including the relevant representations and has had regard to
the Statement of Licensing Policy (SoLP) and the statutory guidance
and has listened carefully to all the submissions made
today. 
 
This is an application
for a new premises licence. The application is for a
‘Late-Night Refreshment’ licence every day from 23:00
to 05:00 hours with potentially 24-hour opening hours. The premises
are not within the Cumulative Impact Zone (CIZ) or Special Stress
Area (SSA). The Matrix indicates yes for a ‘Late-Night
Refreshment’ licence outside of these areas until Midnight,
but each case must be considered on its individual merits.
 
28 representations
were received. They were received from local residents, Residents
Association, 3 local Councillors and the Licensing Authority, on
the grounds of Prevention of Public Nuisance and the Prevention of
Crime & Disorder.
 
A set of conditions
have been agreed between the police and the applicant and
environmental protection. These include that the premises will
operate via a drive-thru facility from 23:00 hours and conditions
concerning litter, noise, odour and fumes.
  
The main concerns
expressed by the Councillor and residents both in writing and at
the hearing were the following:

Residential area,
many properties impacted now and would be more in the future
Ongoing disturbance
throughout the night by cars and delivery vehicles
Already issues of
anti-social behaviour and noise in the area and this will increase
if allowed to operate all night and the sound travels due to echo
effect
Air pollution and
smell of the premises which would continue all night
Issues with
litter
Conditions would not
be able to deal with the issues adequately

 
The applicant’s
solicitor stated that they did recognise the concerns and wanted to
address them. He made the following points:
 

It was a private car
park that would restrict vehicles to 10 minutes
Conditions agreed to
limit any noise disturbances and dialogue with residents
Regular litter
patrols
Not previously aware
of any issues with odour or fumes and don’t believe there are
any but would liaise with environmental protection.
They were a local
independent operator that could operate this licence without
issue
They wanted to have
both delivery drivers and members of the public
Would be willing to
have mobile support security
They were an
exception to the Matrix due to the exceptional safeguards and
conditions proposed

 
The panel has
considered this application on its merits. It has taken into full
consideration all the points made at the hearing. The panel
considers that it has been established by the residents that there
are already issues of noise and anti-social behaviour in this
immediate area emanating from activity in the retail park. It also
considers that there does appear to be an issue with odour
emanating from the premises currently. Extending the hours of
operation after 23:00 hours all through the night is only likely to
exacerbate the problems residents already face. There will be
vehicle activity at the premises during the night with associated
noise and potential anti-social behaviour. The panel was not
convinced by the applicant’s responses that conditions would
be effective in dealing with preventing public nuisance during this
extended noise sensitive time. Furthermore, the panel did not
consider that exceptional circumstances to depart from the Matrix
had been shown and considered that any extension of the operation
beyond 23:00 hours was likely to undermine the licensing objectives
of prevention of public nuisance and prevention of crime and
disorder. The application is therefore refused.
 
The minutes of the
panel will be available on the Council’s website under the
rubric ‘Council and Democracy’.