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Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Room 3.6 and 3.7, 3rd Floor, 5 Strand, London, WC2 5HR. View directions

Contact: Kisi Smith-Charlemagne, Senior Committee and Governance Officer  Email:  kscharlemagne@westminster.gov.uk Tel: 020 7641 2783

Items
No. Item

1.

Membership

To report any changes to the membership.

Minutes:

1.1       There were no changes to the membership.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations by Members and Officers of any personal or prejudicial interests in matters on this agenda.

Minutes:

2.1       There were no declarations of interest.

1.

Odeon Cinema, 24-27 Leicester Square, London, WC2H 7LE pdf icon PDF 1 MB

App

No

Ward /

Cumulative Impact Area

Site Name and Address

Application

Licensing Reference Number

1.

St James’s Ward/ West End Cumulative Impact Area

Odeon Cinema

24-27 Leicester Square

London

WC2H 7LE

New Premises Licence

18/11604/LIPN

 

Minutes:

LICENSING SUB-COMMITTEE No. 5

Thursday 15th November 2018

 

Membership:            Councillor Murad Gassanly (Chairman), Councillor Jacqui Wilkinson and Councillor Aicha Less.

 

Legal Adviser:           Horatio Chance

Committee Officer:   Toby Howes

Presenting Officer:   Michelle Steward

 

Relevant Representations: Environmental Health, Metropolitan Police and the Licensing Authority.

 

Present:  Suzanne Davies (Licensing Consultant, representing the Applicant), Tessa Street (General Manager, Applicant), Peter Ford (Risk Management Director, Applicant), Roxsana Haq (Licensing Authority), PC Bryan Lewis (Metropolitan Police) and Dave Nevitt (Environmental Health).

 

 

Odeon Cinema, 24-27 Leicester Square, London, WC2H 7LE

18/11604/LIPN (“The Premises”)

 

1.

Sale by Retail of Alcohol: On Sales

 

 

Monday to Sunday: 09:00 to 01:00

 

 

 

Amendments to application advised at hearing:

 

None.

 

 

 

Decision (including reasons if different from those set out in report):

 

Suzanne Davies (Licensing Consultant, representing the Applicant) began by stating that the Premises already had an existing premises licence. The Premises was currently closed and undergoing an extensive refurbishment involving significant investment to provide an enhanced cinema experience for customers. Ms Davies stated that the rationale for submitting the application for a new premises licence was so that irrelevant conditions would be removed, add additional ones and update existing conditions to more accurately reflect how the Premises would operate when it re-opened, whilst  also retaining many existing conditions to replicate the existing licence where appropriate. One of the main proposals was to extend the terminal hour for the sale of alcohol by one hour each day in order to extend the customer offer and also so that customers had the opportunity to purchase alcohol when they were going to late viewings where films commenced after midnight. Ms Davies advised that the Applicant had agreed a condition proposed by the Police stating that only persons with tickets for a performance could be sold alcohol after 22:00hrs. The Applicant also intended to hold afternoon tea events with champagne available in the future for customers.

 

Ms Davies stated that the Applicant’s plans for the cinema were very ambitious and the intention was to make it one of the World’s finest cinemas. The refurbishment represented the restoration of a heritage facility, whilst there would also be state of the art facilities, including Dolby technology, and the seats would be larger with recliners, which would sufficiently reduce capacity. Ms Davies advised that the Applicant had held a pre-application meeting with Environmental Health and had taken on board their advice. The Sub-Committee heard that no increases in bar facilities were proposed. However, the capacity would be reduced from 1,922 persons to 1,413 persons, and a further reduction to 953 persons during the terminal hour. This represented reductions of over 26% and over 50% respectively. Ms Davies referred to the plans and explained that customers would be greeted by staff on entering the Premises in order to provide an enhanced customer experience. CCTV would be monitoring the Premises throughout and all staff would be radio linked. W/C provision would also be enhanced. Ms Davies advised that the Premises already had a tables and chairs licence, however the external  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.