Friday, 1 April 2011

Review of Night Club Licence - what happens next

Notice posted outside 562a Mile End Road

Below you can find links to relevant information relating to the Review of the Licence for the nightclub at 562a Mile End Road following the murder of Kelvin Easton in the early hours of 27th March.
  • "What Happens Next" outlines 
    • the process for making a decision on the Licence 
    •  how local residents can make representations to the Licensing Authority.  
  • PLEASE NOTE Representations to the Review need to be submitted in the next week - before Friday 8th April
  • Any queries contact info@mile-end-residents.co.uk
For your information, you will also find listed below details of the following
  • SUSPENSION / FULL REVIEW OF LICENCE: The first application below relates to the Metropolitan Police Application to suspend the licence for 28 days pending a Full Review
  • ORIGINAL APPLICATION The second application relates to the original application for a licence. This contains details of the claims by the applicant relating to how the Club would be operated and what changes would be made to ensure that there was no repeat of the sort of behaviour which led to the licence of the previous club being revoked
See also Police Appeal for witnesses to murder in Mile End

What Happens Next

On Tuesday night, the LB Tower Hamlets Licensing Sub-Committee decided to suspend the licence until the next hearing which must take place within 28 days from the paperwork being submitted to the Council by the police (received on the 28th March 2011)

This means a Full Review Hearing will be held before Sunday 24th April 2011 - which in practical terms will mean before Friday 22nd April.

There are specific rules for how hearings are conducted and you can read more about them here - Licensing Committee - Rules of Procedure for Hearings
The Authority will disregard any information given by a party, or any other person appearing at the hearing, which is not relevant to:
a) their application, representation or notice; and
b) the promotion of the licensing objectives or the crime prevention objective where notice has been given by the police.
Licensing Committee - Rules for Hearings
Who can make a representation to the Hearing?

If you live in the vicinity of the premises and have been affected by the activities of the club in terms of nuisance to you or your property you can make a representation.

Those of most importance to the Hearing are likely to be what's known as interested parties.  Interested parties are defined within the Licensing Act 2003 as:
  • A person living in the vicinity of the premises
  • A body (e.g. a residents association) representing people that live in that vicinity
  • A person involved in a business in the vicinity of the premises
  • A body (e.g. a trade association) representing people involved in businesses in the ‘vicinity’ of the premises
Both Mile End Residents Association and the Quiet Night organisation will be making formal representations.

MERA would encourage anybody who feels that they have something to contribute to submit a representation.  See below for more details of how to do this.

What's the deadline for representations?

Time is very short to make repesentations - ALL representations must be received NO LATER THAN FRIDAY 8TH APRIL

If you do wish to make your views known, whether to support the club or to oppose it, you can:
  • write a letter addressed to The Licensing Department, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Licensing Section, Mulberry Place (AH) PO Box 55739, London E14 1BY.    
  • email your views to licensing@towerhamlets.gov.uk.
Contact Jacqueline Randall, the Licensing Manager or Tower Hamlets Council if you have any queries. You can send them to either licensing@towerhamlets.gov.uk or jacqueline.randall@towerhamlets.gov.uk  or you can call 020 7364 5008

If you have been affected by the club we would urge you to make your views known in writing to the Tower Hamlets Licensing Committee.

  • Our experience to date suggests that personal letters count a lot on such matters.  
  • If you need help to write a letter please contact us on info@mile-end-residents.co.uk or the MERA Hotline No (talk or text) 07932 626340
What should your Representation say?

If you are an individual, you need to focus on your own personal experience

Any information provided which does not address one of the LICENSING OBJECTIVES will be DISREGARDED at the Hearing.  The licensing objectives are:
  • The prevention of crime and disorder
  • Public safety
  • The prevention of public nuisance
  • The protection of children from harm
If interested parties believe that granting a licence in the terms it has been applied for is likely to have an effect (whether positive or negative) on the promotion of one or more of these objectives, they can make a representation to the relevant authority.
Representations should provide evidence

All representations must be about the likely effect of granting or varying the licence on the promotion of at least one of the four licensing objectives. It would be wise, therefore, to explicitly link any representation to one or more of the objectives.
There is no requirement for an interested party to produce a recorded history at a premises to support their representations…… However, it will assist their case if the representations are specific to the premises and evidence based. Licensing authorities will need to be satisfied that there is an evidential and causal link between the representations made, and the effect on the licensing objectives
Guidance for Interested Parties - Making Representations March 2010
Interested parties have a number of rights under the Act
If they think granting a new, or changing an existing licence or certificate would undermine any of the licensing objectives, interested parties can make representations to the relevant licensing authority. They can also ask the licensing authority to review a licence or certificate if problems occur which undermine the licensing objectives.
That means anybody in the local area who is an interested party can comment.  Issues relating to the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, and the prevention of public nuisance are relevant to this Review.

To help interested parties engage in the licensing process, the government has issued the following Guidance notes:
Note also that all personal data is redacted from the report that is in the public domain, this includes signatures, full adresses, email addresses and telephone numbers to ensure full compliance with the Data Protection Act .

Consultation and impending changes to the Licensing Law

The Coalition Agreement included a commitment to overhaul and rebalance the Licensing Act 2003:
  • in favour of local communities 
  • to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers to remove licences from, or refuse to grant licences to, any premises that are causing problems in the local area.
Since the original licence application and the granting of the Licence for the nightclub at 562a Mile End Road, the Government last year reviewed Licensing arrangements with specific attention being paid to alcohol related crime and disorder.

You can find out more discover more about the government's response, the consultation analysis, the proposals and the factsheets on the Rebalancing the Licensing Act consultation page

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill 2010-11 was due to receive its third reading in the House of Commons on 31st March 2011.

The new Act will amend and supplement the Licensing Act 2003 with the intention of ‘rebalancing’ it in favour of local authorities, the police and local communities.  For example, the Government is now very keen that licence applicants give greater consideration to the local area when making their application.  Examples relevant to this area include:
Applicants will be required to provide contextual information as part of the licence application form on issues such as the local area’s social- demographic characteristics, specific local crime and disorder issues and an awareness of the local environment which will be of benefit to the licensing authority when determining the application. Specific local issues, such as crime and disorder issues, are likely to influence the steps that applicants will need to take to promote the licensing objectives in their own premises and applicants will therefore be required to demonstrate an awareness of such issues when setting out why particular steps will be taken to promote the licensing objectives.
Licensing Sub Committee Tuesday, 29th March, 2011

(Link to website page for this committee)

The process to be followed when considering Licences is detailed in the Agenda reports pack PDF 2 MB

The Police applied for a suspension of the Licence at a specially convened meeting of the Licensing Sub Committee of Tuesday evening.  The following documentation identifies the GROUNDS FOR CONCERN leading to the application.
That in the opinion of a senior police officer of the Metropolitan Police the above premises are associated with serious crime and disorder
Application for a Section 53A Review of the Premises License for Boheme (formally Broke London) 562a Mile End Road, London E3 4PH (73/011) (PDF 59kb) The above details the process to be followed by the Committee.  Members were asked to consider whether interim steps were necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives as follows
  • The modification of the conditions of the premises licence 
  • The exclusion of the sale of alcohol by retail (or other licensable activities) from the scope of the licence
  • The removal of the designated premises supervisor from the licence
  • The suspension of the licence
The Police sought and Members agreed a suspension of the Licence pending a Full Review within 28 days.  This was based on the very serious consequences following management and staff failure  concerning searching of the customers and the security of the CCTV equipment (which was removed by an unknown male following the incident that resulted in the death of Kelvin Easton).

The application for the review of the Licence made by a senior officer of the Metropolitan Police is contained in Boheme Appendices Only  PDF 2 MB
  • The form applying for a summary licence review is contained in Appendix 1.
  • The Certificate under Section 53A of the Act is contained as Appendix 2. 
  • The current licence is in Appendix 3.
  • Appendix 4 sets out the Expedited/Summary Reviews Guidance (ie how these should be conducted)
Licensing Sub Committee 
Thursday, 27th August, 2009

Below you can find the original application for the licence and details about the claims made by the applicant as to how the club would be managed and what measures would be taken to prevent a repeat of the previous incidents of violence, disorder and nuisance to nearby residents.  These incidents led to the previous licence being REVOKED after an application by the Police.

Application for a new premises licence for Former Club E3, 562a Mile End Road, London E3 4PH (LSC016/910)  PDF 68 KB
It was noted that previous events, style of music, and dress code had largely contributed to the nuisance caused to local residents as it attracted gang culture, weapons, violence etc. Mr Walsh stated that the club would not have outside promoters, would have a formal dress code and the capacity of the club would be reduced from 700 to 500.
Additional documents:

UPDATE Links:  MERA News Blog:

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