Agenda and minutes

(Director of Governance) To declare interests in any item on this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest pursuant to the Council’s Code of Members Conduct.

The Sub-Committee noted the agreed procedure for the conduct of business and the terms of reference.

(Director of Neighbourhoods) To consider the attached report and representations.

The three Councillors that presided over this item were Councillors Morgan, Hart and Adams.

The Chairman introduced the Members and Officers present and outlined the procedure that would be followed for the determination of the application. The Chairman welcomed the participants and requested that they introduce themselves to the Sub-Committee. In attendance on behalf of the applicants were Parish Councillor N Cohen, Mr B Dunn and Mr S Kingsley. On behalf of the premises ‘Il Bacio’, were the proprietors, Mr and Mrs Funedda and their agent Mr N Samaroo.

Mr Samaroo asked the Sub-committee and applicants if he could introduce some new paperwork, containing some background papers and a set of additional conditions that the premises owners were willing to add to their terms and conditions. This was agreed by the Sub-committee and the applicants.

The Licensing Enforcement Officer, Mrs Owen introduced the review brought by Councillor Cohen on behalf of Mr Dunn for a review of the premises licence for Il Bacio, 182 Queens Road, Buckhurst Hill on the grounds of the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance. This application had been made on 23^rd October 2014. It was noted that the application for a review had been advertised as required by the Licensing Act 2003 and representations were received from interested parties along with letters of support for the premises along with a petition signed by 60 residents.

Essex Police had also responded but had no comments to make in respect of the licensing objectives.

Presentation of the Applicant’s Case

Councillor Cohen introduced himself saying that he was a Buckhurst Hill Parish Councillor and that he was also a restaurateur, had owned a restaurant for 25 years in Loughton and was also the chairman of the Loughton Trade Association and had been on both sides of the fence.  He had not taken this decision lightly. He had been told that they would be opening a wine bar, Il Bacio Caves, close to his house and decided that he should look into the background of the business so that he knew what to expect. He spoke to residents and was told that there was a problem with the existing Il Bacio restaurant.

He noted that he had since pulled his previous application for a review and had put in a new one.

He had received complaints about noise nuisance about the premises and had noted that the Epping Forest log of complaints did not contain as many as he had known about. He knew that the Il Bacio served customers alcohol after 11pm as he had personally observed this. He noticed that people got quite noisy at night, going home. Was it fair that residents got disturbed at night when they were trying to sleep? He was concerned about the affect on the resident’s lives. They could not just get up and move. It was not that easy. Other businesses in Queens Road did not cause these problems as they did not have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.