Police raise concerns over bid to sell alcohol at new Hartlepool town centre shop

An application has been submitted to Hartlepool Borough Council by Mercy Raajanee Pathmarajan to gain permission for a newsagent’s and grocery shop selling alcohol at 78 Church Street.

If approved, the new premises licence would allow the store to sell alcohol from 7am until 11pm seven days a week in line with the planned opening hours.

Concerns have been raised by Cleveland Police, however, who have proposed a number of conditions they believe should be in place to ensure licensing objectives are followed.

Therefore a meeting of the council’s licensing sub-committee has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 29, for a decision to be made on the proposals.

The application states steps will be taken to ensure public safety, the protection of children and the prevention of crime, disorder and public nuisance.

Measures in place would include 24-hour CCTV coverage.

Yet Cleveland Police have said: “In its current format, Cleveland Police believe that this application fails to adequately address the prevention of crime and disorder licensing objective.

“The area in which this proposed premise is situated already suffers from high levels of alcohol-related crime and disorder and anti-social behaviour.”

They added they believe the concerns could be “adequately addressed” if a number of conditions were placed on the premises licence, such reducing the hours selling alcohol to 8am until 11pm.

Others include staff training in relation to policies such as Challenge 25, keeping an incident book and only displaying alcohol in specified areas.