Redlands Liberal Democrats

Police call for action to be taken against Kings Tavern management

Yesterday I got the papers through from RBC in connection with the licence review of the Kings Tavern on Kings Road.

This is a serious chapter in the recent troubled history of this venue as the latest application for a review of the licence comes from Superintendent Steve Kirk of Thames Valley Police.

The grounds for the review are set out as follows in the agenda papers:

'Thames Valley Police have serious concerns that firstly, an unauthorised Licensable Activity has been carried out at the premises otherwise than authorised and secondly that ther is an unsuitable Designated Premises Supervisor, resulting in lack of control, therefore, the Premises Licence Holder has undermined the licensing objective of the Prevention of Crime and Disorder.'

In plain English what happened was this: on 6 July 2009 an observer witnessed alcohol being served by the DPS to customers during the period when the pub's licence had been suspended by the Council's licensing committee.

The Police are now calling for the removal of the Designated Premises Licence Holder, Augusta Sama and for the Premises Licence of the Kings Tavern to be revoked.

As ward councillors for the area we had been closely monitoring what has been going on at this venue following the review in May.

We have had serious concerns about the competence of the management at this venue for over a year.

This follows a number of complaints we have received from residents living nearby about noise and anti-social behaviour.

So we are grateful to the Police for pursuing this action and hope it will lead to a better managed venue in future for the benefit of customers and residents.

A panel of Councillors will meet on Friday 27 November to decide what action should be taken.

You can access the agenda and background papers for the review meeting which will be held in the Council Chamber of the Civic Offices (and is open to the public) here.

Options open to councillors range from taking no action, modifying the conditions of the licence to removing the designated premises licence supervisor or revoking the licence.

Unfortuanately due to the vagaries of Labour's Licensing Act 2003 the ability of ward councillors to participate in the licensing process is severely limited so we are reliant of members of the Panel (who represent other wards) doing the right thing.

In the past we have felt that the Council has pulled it's punches when dealing with problems at this venue.

For this reason we hope the councillors on the panel take decisive action on Friday to prevent more serious problems occuring at this venue in the future.

Kings Tavern: licence suspended but will things improve?

Last night I spoke on behalf of local residents who have had to put up with months of disturbance caused by the Kings Tavern on Kings Road.

As I reported in March a review of the licence held by the Kings Tavern was triggered by the environmental protection section of the Council, following months of noise complaints by local residents living nearby.

I was extremely shocked by what I heard at the licensing committee hearing.

Over the past few months, in addition to complaints from residents about noise and anti-social behaviour, the management of the Kings Tavern failed a test purchasing visit by RBC Trading Standards and Thames Valley Police and were found selling alcohol to underage people.

The management have also been responsible for holding a late night party earlier this year that got so out of hand it resulted in additional Police officers having to be brought in from outside the Borough to tackle public order offences.

These serious lapses are wholly unacceptable in what is largely a residential area with large numbers of families, elderly people and families living nearby. The reports I received from residents were distressing and caused at least one couple to move out of the area.

This pub has been a problem venue for many months. Last summer I campaigned to support residents who did not want to see its licence extended. The application was withdrawn following the scale of local objection.

What I find particularly unsatisfactory about the way events unfolded at the Kings Tavern is that the management were repeatedly warned by both the Council and the Police to get control of the venue, tackle problems or face a licence review.

Despite these warnings the problems continued and we continued to receive complaints from increasingly exasperated local residents.

As a result of last night's licensing hearing the premise licence held by the DPS at the Kings Tavern has been suspended for 28 days to allow them to put in place new regulations and policies. A number of new conditions have also been attached designed to reduce noise breakout and other problems.

The new conditions are welcome, however, I personally would have liked to have seen either the Council or the pub company consider enforcing a change of management at this venue if possible.

I do not see why local residents should have to put up with further nuisance.

I hope that this decision will be a wake-up call to the management of the Kings Tavern.

If not, I will support residents in pressing for a revocation of the licence. For that to happen we will need evidence of nuisance caused.

I would urge any residents disturbed by noise or other problems relating to this venue in the future to report it to the authorities so that action can be taken :

• Reading Borough Council Licensing section 0118 939 0678

• Reading Borough Council Environmental Health (Noise) team: 0118 939 0937 (daytimes) 0118 939 0900 out of hours.
• Police: 0845 8 505 505 (24hr asb hotline) or 999.

UPDATE:

Today's Evening Post has the story.

I thought August was supposed to be quiet?

While the number of formal Council meetings may reduce to a trickle during August, Kirsten, Glenn and I are continuing to be very busy campaigning on a number of ward and Reading-wide issues as August gets underway.

Last week I met with the Head of Community Safety to discuss street drinking restriction areas and dispersal zones, of which more at a later date. The Council has also just launched it's draft anti-social behaviour strategy, which I'll be looking at in detail. You can view the strategy here and email officers your views here.

On Monday, Kirsten and Glenn met officers and Councillors from neighbouring wards to discuss taking forward the Council's (A327) Shinfield Road area study which relates closely to traffic and road safety issues around Christchurch Green and the top of Redlands Road.

Next week, on 12 August, the licence extension application by the Impartation Network (79 London Rd) and an application for a  premises licence by Mix Gill (Crown Colonnade, London Road) will be heard at the Council's Licensing Applications Sub-Committee. Kirsten and I will be speaking against these applications on behalf of a large number of local residents who contacted us with real fears that their quality of life will be badly affected by these applications.

Also next week I will be meeting officers to discuss the Council's emerging Housing Strategy which is up for renewal, followed by our Surgery on Saturday 16 August (10am-11.20am, Hexham Community Centre, Bamburgh Close).

All in all,  August is shaping up to be rather busy in Redlands...

Responsible drinking around the University

Students and responsible drinking is back in the national press today, with news that members of the National Union of Students are to table a motion calling for 'responsible drinking' on campuses this week.

An article in today's Observer highlights the organised pub-crawls in University towns run by a company called Carnage. These events have been set up in Reading and I know they are cause for concern of the local Police and local residents who live around the University.

The article also discusses cheap drinks promotions which are promoted on some campuses.

I am writing to Reading University Student's Union (RUSU) about this today to ask them to clarify their position on this issue, and to update me what they're doing to promote responsible drinking on and off campus. I've always found that RUSU has taken a mature approach and the work they did last year to ban initiation ceremonies at Reading University was excellent.

I know that noise caused by a minority of drunk students is still a problem around some of streets off Erleigh Road, but in general I feel things has got a little better and a lot of this is thanks to the joint effort of RUSU and the Redlands & University Neighbour Action Group (NAG).

If residents report problems, Kirsten and I raise issues directly RUSU and Reading University, and we now have strong relationship with both. I'm a firm believer that good communication helps in these types of situations and this was certainly lacking on all sides when I was first elected in 2006.

Borrowing from JS Mill for a second (burried at the back of my mind from a politics degree!) my view is that a balance clearly needs to be struck, to ensure that the 'harm' done to students and residents is kept to a minimum, while allowing students to have a good time at University. Many would argue we haven't quite managed that yet.

If you are a resident affected by this problem, please drop me a line and I would be happy to assist. With my NAG hat on I would also suggest you report any problems to the Police's asb hotline: 0845 8 505 505 so that they are aware of the problem.

A busy month so far...

I'm sorry not to have posted anything for few weeks, November has proved to be very busy indeed.

On November 7 I met with council officers to discuss the growing problem of empty homes. This has been one of my main campaign issues since getting elected. Earlier in the year we highlighted a number of problem empty properties such as Alexandra House on London Road and a large house  in a prominent position on the corner of Kendrick Road and Christchurch Road. These properties have been empty for some time and as well as as attracting anti-social behaviour, they are also a wasted opportunity to provide local people with new homes. I'm pleased to say that after pressure from the Lib Dems the Council has finally recognised the need to take action in this area, and we hope new policies to come on stream early next year.

Measures to reduce crime in South and East Reading have also been high up my agenda this month. I attended the South Forum Safer Forum where I am pleased to say that my bid for better lighting on Lancaster Close has been agreed Download db_lancaster_close_lighting_streetletter_15_november_2007.doc .

Residents living in this area have suffered repeatedly from burglaries and graffiti and action was needed. I was shocked to discover that RBC has no specific budget for lighting per se and that lighting bids can only be justified if crime figures support them. Far from ideal and definitely something the Lib Dems will continue to campaign on in the future.

The East Reading Safer Forum focused on problems around nuisance drinking on the edge of the town centre. Labour councillors are keen to introduce street drinking bans in problem areas. This is a gesture - I don't think the Police have enough officers to resource this type of thing. Far better to tackle the problem premises with existing powers open to Councils.

Sadly since the government relaxed the licensing laws, some licenses had been approved in previous years without (in my view) adequate consultation with local people who have to live with the effects. The 24 hour license for the Murco Garage is an example of this. Interestingly, Gordon Brown recently signalled a u-turn on this issue: he is to review the impacts of 24 hour drinking and the impact of the reform of licensing legislation in 2005. I am concerned about the cheap availability of alcohol in supermarkets in particular to children. Tesco has got in to trouble over this recently.