The Licensing Panel will consider whether to vary the Premises Licence of a petrol station and shop to allow it to sell alcohol 24/7, and serve late night refreshment indoors and outdoors. The meeting will also note reports from the Monitoring Officer and consider the Council’s procedure for Licensing Panel hearings.

Isleworth Service Station

Motor Fuel Limited applied to vary the Premises Licence for Isleworth Service Station at 403-405 Twickenham Road, Isleworth.

The applicant seeks permission to:

• Extend the hours during which they can sell alcohol for consumption off the premises to 24/7.
• Provide late-night refreshments indoors and outdoors from 23:00 to 05:00.

The application includes conditions consistent with the applicant's Operating Schedule, which is a set of commitments designed to demonstrate how the applicant intends to meet its obligations under the Licensing Act 2003.

The Licensing Panel will consider the application, the Council's Licensing Policy and representations from members of the public.

Three representations were received from members of the public. The representations concerned the application's potential impact on local residents and cited issues including:

• Anti-social behaviour in the nearby Redlees Park.
• Noise disturbance from customers' cars, radios and car doors at the service station, particularly late at night and early in the morning.
• Noise disturbance from the service station's car wash, especially when its rear shutter malfunctions.
• Litter being left on the pavement in the area.
• A previous incident at the service station which caused a disturbance in nearby Lynton Close and resulted in two arrests.

The representations note that Isleworth Service Station was previously granted a one-hour extension to its licence for the sale of alcohol in 2020. The decision notice from the meeting records that,

“The Applicant stated they were asking for a one hour variation to match their licensing hours to their trading hours, which were 06:00 to 23:00.”

They argue that the applicant's request to extend the sale of alcohol to 24/7 is inconsistent with this previous statement.

The representations also question the applicant's statement that the current opening hours for Isleworth Service Station are Monday to Sunday 00.00-24.00. They note that other documents state the opening hours are 06.00-23.00 Monday to Sunday.

The Council's Licensing Policy generally restricts the sale of alcohol off the premises to between 09:00 and 23:00. It states that

Evidence from the police and public health suggests that the availability of alcohol from premises authorised to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises has had a negative impact on the promotion of the licensing objectives in the Borough, particularly in areas where there are clusters of such premises.

The policy also states that applications for a licence outside of its 'core hours' will need to provide evidence to show that their application will not undermine the licensing objectives. The core hours for the sale of alcohol are 09:00 to 23:00 Monday to Thursday, 09:00 to 00:00 Friday and Saturday, and 10:00 to 22:30 Sunday.