Shop licence bid to sell alcohol later rejected over nuisance worries

A shop's bid to extended its hours to sell alcohol an hour later at night has been rejected after complaints about noise level.

Hartlepool Council licensing sub committee held a hearing to consider the application to extend the hours of the Headland Extra Local Shop at 152 Northgate, to sell alcohol.

The store currently has a licence to sell alcohol from 9am until 10pm but owners wanted to change this to 8am until 11pm due to customer demand on a night.

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Ahead of the hearing one complaint was lodged by a nearby resident over noise issues coming from the store, which has held its licence since 2016.

The council’s licensing policy states licences for a store to provide the sale of alcohol in residential areas are ‘generally refused if before 9am or after 10pm’.

Shop licence holder Mr Ranga Jayarathne Gunamuthu appealed to the committee that the extension of hours would benefit the area.

He told the hearing: “People in the area have requested it.

“The last couple of months there have been a lot of people asking if we could sell alcohol later, but we said we couldn’t because of the licence.

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“There’s not been any problems but they just ask if they could buy alcohol later.

“That is the main reason why we want to open later.”

He also said the shop currently has 13 cameras to help surveillance.

Prior to the meeting one notice of objection had been received by nearby resident Simon Watson.

It said: “I want to object to the 11pm opening time. The noise generated is ridiculous as I’ve complained on various occasions to my housing officer.

“It’s a disgrace the noise.”

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After hearing the applicants explanation the committee retired before later making a decision to reject the application.

Committee chair coun David Hunter said: “We considered the application in detail and took into consideration the letter of objection received from the occupier of the flat above the premises.

“We also considered the council’s licensing policy and could not find any strong reason for departing from the policy.

“We have therefore decided to refuse the application as we do not consider that the licensing objective relating to the prevention of public nuisance would be promoted if the application was granted.”

Nic Marko , Local Democracy Reporting Service