An "administrative oversight" by the former owners of a Nottingham shop led police to insist that it should be closed for six months. The new owner of the 24 Express shop on Mansfield Road is applying to Nottingham City Council for a licence, including for the selling of alcohol there.
The business's new owners are in no way connected to the previous ones, who had to sell it earlier this year following the Nottinghamshire Police decision. The issues started when 24 Express' previous owners allowed its licence to expire.
Documents submitted to the city council as part of the new licence application say: "These premises are a pre-existing convenience store that has successfully traded with a premises licence for many years. Through administrative oversight of the previous operators, the previous premises licence lapsed.
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"The previous operators continued to trade whilst a new application was made, but obtained insufficient authorisations to trade during the hours that they actually did." This meant that Nottinghamshire Police objected to a new licence for the former owners being granted, and this was therefore refused by the city council on July 19.
Nick Semper, the licencing agent acting on behalf of the new owner, said: "The previous owners tried to negotiate new terms to trade on but the police insisted that the shop should be closed for six months. That just isn't economically viable for someone running a business and so they sold up.
"A new commercial lease was signed with Muhammed Telli, who I'm acting for, and he is totally unconnected with the previous operators." The application seeks permission for alcohol to be sold at 24 Express from 5am until midnight every day.
In terms of its overall operation, the new owner wants to maintain its 24/7 opening time. In terms of the safety work that will be carried out at the shop if the licence is granted, the application says that CCTV will be installed and maintained.
A book will also be kept at the shop detailing every incident where someone has been refused service, along with why this was the case and who made the decision. Staff will also be given training to prevent the sale of alcohol to people who are drunk and to people who are underage.
The application was submitted in October, with a request for it to start from November 12. Nottinghamshire Police said it was unable to offer any further comment until a decision had been made on the current application.
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