Agenda item

To receive and consider the attached repot of the Chief Officer, Elections and Regulatory

The report of the Chief Officer, Elections and Regulatory presented an application to vary a premises licence held by New Middleton, 4 Thorpe Street,

Middleton, Leeds, LS10 4HD, to specify a new individual as the Designated Premises Supervisor.

In attendance at the meeting were:

·  Tanya Clowes - Licence Holder and Applicant

·  Michaela Grainger – proposed Designated Premises Supervisor

·  Sarah Blenkhorn, West Yorkshire Police – Objector

·  Jane Wood, Senior Liaison and Enforcement Officer – attending to support the Principal Licensing Officer presenting the application and to respond to any questions by the panel members regarding recent liaisons with the premises.

The Legal Officer outlined the procedure for the meeting.

The Principal Licensing Officer presented the application providing the following information:

·  The applicant was Ms Tanya Clowes, who was proposing Michaela Grainger as the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS). A copy of the application was attached at Appendix A of the report.

·  A history of the premises was included within the submitted report at Paragraph 2, including the outcome of the substantive review hearing on 18th June 2024.

·  A copy of the police objection was appended to the report at Appendix B. Further to their objection, West Yorkshire Police had provided the document at Appendix C indicating they hold multiple pieces of intelligence relating to the premises which they intended to share during closed session only.

Ms Clowes the applicant and Ms Grainger provided the Sub-Committee with the following information:

·  They already ran the premises together, however, Ms Clowes said that Ms Grainger was in fact there more than herself.

·  Ms Clowes had taken on the premises in 2022 and there had been no incidents at the premises until this year when the premises had to be reviewed due to a number of breaches of the licence and disorder immediately outside the premises. They recognised that they should have applied for a Temporary Event Notice. They said that they had learnt from this incident and had done as requested ensuring that all documentation and notices required were now in place and CCTV, with 32 cameras was fully operational and compliant.

·  Ms Grainger is the partner of Colin Jackson who is the uncle of David Jackson Junior, but that Colin Jackson has no input in the running of the premises. It was noted that Colin Jackson is almost 60 years old and on dialysis awaiting an operation, he does run the snooker and pool club at the New Middleton. 

West Yorkshire Police presented the following information:

·  The objection notice set out the reasons for the Police objection. The letter referred to incidents whilst the Jackson family had run the premises, ending in revocation of the licence.

·  Tanya Clowes had applied for the premises licence in 2022, which was granted despite objections from the Police. In granting the licence, conditions were applied that stated David Jackson was not to be involved with the running of the business. It was noted that David Jackson owns the premises.

·  Michaela Grainger is the partner of Colin Jackson, who was the brother of the late David Jackson and the uncle of David Jackson Junior, who had both run the premises during Julie Jackson’s reign.

At this stage of the meeting, Members were asked to consider moving into private session as the discussion was likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information. This related to intelligence gathered in relation to the premises and activities associated with the premises. Those issues fell within the provisions of Access to Information Procedure Rules 10.4(3) and 10.4 (7).

RESOLVED – That the public be excluded from the following part of the meeting as discussion was likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information.

In response to questions from Members, the Licensing Sub-Committee were provided with the following information:

·  It was noted that if Ms Grainger was to become DPS it would make her more accountable for the premises.

·  Ms Grainger said that she was not related to Julie Jackson and had nothing to do with her.

·  The intelligence provided by the Police came from the intelligence unit, but it was unclear how the intelligence was gathered.

·  David Jackson junior owns the premises and Ms Clowes pays him rent via a bank transfer. It was said that David Jackson junior has nothing to do with the running of the premises and had inferred that he would like to flatten it and build flats.

·  It was noted that with all the intelligence gathered against the premises no action had been taken in relation to the intelligence and no visits had been made to the premises in the last two years prior to the recent incident. The local Police do some visits and had provided information in relation to the recent review, and the premises had not been on the radar until the incident in May.

·  Ms Grainger said that they had an open-door policy, and the Police were welcome to visit at any time. They had assisted the Police on occasions when they had requested footage from the CCTV which looks out onto the road in relation to incidents not linked with the premises.

Members discussions included:

·  Intelligence provided by the Police.

·  The role of DPS would make Ms Grainger more accountable.

·  The latest incident at the premises resulting in the submission of a summary review by West Yorkshire Police, and the outcome, i.e. two month suspension, additional conditions attached to the licence and the undertakings (1) for all staff employed at the premises to receive training on all aspects of licensing responsibilities, and (2) for a meeting to take place at the premises with representatives of the police and the Licensing Authority no less than two weeks prior to re-opening to the public.

RESOLVED – To grant the application as requested.