An application for a shop to extend its alcohol trading hours looks to be refused after concerns around anti-social behaviour were raised by Merseyside Police.
A proposal to increase the hours available for the sale of alcohol at Eat and Treat in Kensington will go before Liverpool Council’s Licensing Authority sub-committee next week.
Applicant Thadsayani Karthigesu Jeyakanthan is seeking to trade alcohol for the duration of the convenience store’s opening hours - 9am to 11pm Monday to Sunday. The shop’s current hours are 12pm to 9pm.
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Eat and Treat’s owners are also hoping to remove conditions from its premises licence that denies customers self-serve alcohol, provision of alcohol no more than 70cl and banning alcohol purchases under £5.
In written representations made to the committee, Merseyside Police has recommended the application be refused.
In a statement in the committee report, the force’s Dawn Lawrenson said granting the amendments would “will impact on area that already suffers with a high level of anti-social behaviour.”
It was said that varying the licence conditions would undermine the licensing objective of Prevention of Crime and Disorder and Prevention of Public Nuisance.
The statement added: “This area has been identified as a priority area of concern that already suffers from high levels of alcohol related Anti-Social Behaviour with the associated crime and disorder problems.
“Alcohol is widely available in this locality and a further outlet would, in our opinion, exacerbate the problems already suffered in this area.
“There are existing problems of public nuisance in this area for local residents in particular noise nuisance from associated alcohol related anti-social behaviour. It is believed that this application will also increase other low level anti-social behaviour and associated public nuisance issues in the surrounding public spaces.”
In a further representation, Kensington councillors Liam Robinson, Wendy Simon and Sue Walker said removing the existing conditions would be “frankly irresponsible.”
They said: “The street drinking in the area has lead to a very negative perception of the area with people concerned about their safety locally, including outbreaks of aggressive begging.
“Due to the shops previous problems there is a real risk if the license conditions are removed this could attract street drinkers back to the premises.”
Concluding, the authority members said: “Due to ongoing issues in the area we believe that the removal of these conditions as requested is irresponsible and should be rejected.”
The application will be heard during the Licensing Authority sub-committee meeting on Wednesday 2nd February.
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