The Licensing Hearing Sub Committee of Bury Council has published the agenda for its next meeting. There is one item on the agenda, an application for a variation of a premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003.

Application for a Variation of a Premises Licence for Village News, 477 Bury New Road, Prestwich

The Licensing Hearing Sub Committee has been asked to consider an application for the variation of a premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003 in respect of Village News, 477 Bury New Road, Prestwich.

The applicant, Mr Venu Mandadapu, is seeking to change the hours during which the premises is permitted to sell alcohol. The existing licence permits the sale of alcohol from 07:00 to 23:00. Mr Mandadapu has applied to vary this to permit the sale of alcohol for 24 hours per day.

Representations have been received from the Public Health Service and Greater Manchester Police, in their capacity as Responsible Authorities, and two interested parties, objecting to the application.

The Public Health Service's representation argues that:

There would be a percentage of the 1486 population within this Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) that would be directly impacted by 24-hour alcohol sales along with an already high saturation of premises already selling alcohol with a total of 43 sites.

Greater Manchester Police's representation expresses concern that:

members of the public will have greater access to alcohol after hours and is likely to lead to on street drinking. This is likely to lead to further alcohol fuelled anti-social behaviour and violent crime, which is only likely to be more severe with the discarding of empty containers such as glass bottles which in turn increases the availability of potential weapons which wouldn’t have been there previously.

One of the interested parties, who lives locally, writes:

The shop is very close to a large social housing complex. There is a history on this estate of antisocial behaviour, including drug abuse and sales, public drunkenness and theft from cars and property which has been linked to the purchase and use of alcohol and drugs.

The other interested party, who does not provide their name, writes:

As the premises is in the town centre, there are already a higher level of alcohol related issues of ASB, public nuisance and crime. The current licensing arrangements help to limit this, with most licensed premises closing at a reasonable time.