A North London off-licence’s “unwillingness” to agree to a number of conditions to its licence “raises concerns about its ability to operate responsibility”, according to the Metropolitan Police. Officers claim the measures are designed to reduce street drinking and antisocial behaviour but the shop owner feels he is being treated differently to other premises.
Deluxe Off-Licence and Paan Parlour, on Village Way East in Harrow, has applied to the council for a new premises licence. It is looking to sell alcohol from 7am until 11pm Monday to Sunday but the plan has been met with opposition from both the police and the Licensing Authority.
The organisations don’t want the shop to be able to start selling alcohol until 9am, after schools have started, as well as attaching 15 other conditions to the licence. The shop owner, Janakkumar Patel, has agreed to 13 of the 16 total conditions but doesn’t want to budge on the 7am start and also wants to be able to sell single cans and miniatures – which he claims other nearby shops are doing.
Speaking at a recent meeting of Harrow Council’s Licensing Panel, Mr Patel claimed other shops in the area currently sell beer, lager, and cider in single cans, as well as miniature spirits, so feels he would be being treated unfairly if his application was refused on those grounds. He also said this would mean he was promoting more alcohol sales, as he would be selling in larger sizes or multipacks, which he wouldn’t want to do.
However, the Licensing Authority said these conditions are “best practice” for premises in high risk areas. The police also claimed that data shows that these individual sized cans and bottles are most popular amongst street drinkers and banning them is having “a positive impact” on neighbourhoods and “helping to reduce street drinking”.
‘We shouldn’t be entertaining this application at all’
PC Bhandari told the panel: “The three conditions are a pro-active stance from the Home Office, police, and local authority. This area is marred with antisocial behaviour and drink related problems. My first instinct is that we shouldn’t be entertaining this application at all because it’s in a saturated [area].”
PC Bhandari pointed to 11 incidents taking place in and around the area since January of this year, ten of which were related to street drinking. He added that he had “no doubt” that if the conditions weren’t enforced then “the problems would drift” to the area around the shop.
He added that some of the shops that do currently sell these items and operate from 7am are able to as their licence was granted before these conditions were brought in. PC Bhandari said that all new applications are pushed to have them attached to the licence and this is the “first application where [the applicant] has said they will not accept them”.
Mr Patel argued that the police data referred to other roads nearby but not Village Way East specifically. He said: “We will have CCTV, we won’t encourage street drinking, we won’t serve them. In the crime report there is no suggestion that there is crime on my road. Everything they suggested is on Alexandra Avenue.”
Ultimately the police said the measures were necessary so as not to “exacerbate the problem” of street drinking in the area and were “essential to protect the public”. The panel will now review the application and Mr Patel will be notified of its decision within the next five days.
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