District council fends off appeal over revocation of premises licence

A district council has successfully defended a decision of its licensing panel to revoke the premises licence of a bar and club.

In March Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s Licensing Panel took the decision to revoke the premises licence of Bamboodle in Stratford-upon-Avon for the continued failure by the management of the premises to promote the licensing objectives and the prevention of public nuisance, the prevention of crime and disorder and public safety.

Bamboodle appealed that decision but this was dismissed at Coventry and Warwickshire Magistrates’ Court.

At the three-day hearing, the court found that there was no doubt that local residents had been severely adversely affected by noise nuisance coming from Union Street, with crowds of people associated with Bamboodle on the pavement and highway causing unacceptable noise nuisance.

The council said it had also established that the door staff and management of the club had little or no regard for the number of customers on its premises with consequent significant risk to those inside the premises.

Despite frequent warnings and advice the management of Bamboodle appeared to have done nothing to attempt to comply with the maximum capacity requirement, it added.

After the three-day appeal hearing the Magistrates announced: “We have decided through an overwhelming weight of evidence that despite every opportunity the licence holder has continued and continues to disregards its licence conditions.

“We concur with the finding of the licensing authority’s review that there is no real likelihood that the licence holder will operate to promote the licensing objectives. We do not believe that the decision of the licensing committee to revoke the licence was ‘wrong’ and accordingly the appeal is dismissed.”

The appellant company was also ordered to pay all the district council’s costs of just over £25,000.

Cllr Susan Adams, Licensing Panel Chair at Stratord-upon-Avod, said: “This is another case that has shown that the district council considers licensing issues seriously as well as public safety and welfare. Members of the public are entitled to enjoy a night out in a safe environment and that is what the panel is keen to endorse.

“This has been a long process and the judgement praises the professionalism and credibility of our witnesses and I would like to thank everyone involved in this case who have worked so hard on this over many months.”

The district council was represented throughout the case by barrister Jeremy Phillips of Francis Taylor Building.