The school council of St Nicholas Primary School , Rawreth, have sent in a written objection to the Asda 24-hour alcohol sales license application.
However we understand that so far the letter has been rejected by the District Council for various legal reasons….
Would like some idea of what those legal reasons might be! As far as I can see, the school, as a resident within close proximity, has as much right to object as anyone else. I think I might go and have a word with our licensing officer, (I work for a local authority) and see what he says about all this!
they surely could object under child protection reasons at the very least!!
In the current social climate I’d like the licensing authority to ignore a child’s view!!!
Better pass them a copy of “every child matters”, and “the interest of the child are paramount”…………. with my child protection doctor hat on that is!!
I believe one of the legal problems was the age of the children on the school council.
However I understand that about 10 objections have been accepted as valid (including one from the County Council in relation to the school).
Having just spoken to the licencing officer where I work, and told him of our saga – he informed me that the school’s objections should be accepted as they are an interested party.
Hopefully if ASDA do get a 24 hour licence the school children won’t be doing any late night shopping. If the licence extension is for times the school is closed how can it be affected?
The school can be affected by beer bottles thrown over the fence, smashing on childrens playgrounds – it already happens on a fairly frequent basis with beer bottles left around my house, thrown in my gardens and smashed in the road!
If ASDA get this licence, I wonder how long it will be before a child is injured because of broken glass in what should be a safe environment.
If ASDA are selling alcohol to under 18’s they should lose their licence. However, if under 18’s have alcohol without proof of purchase then the local police should be arresting them for theft.
If the shop is open, responsible adults should not be prevented purchasing alcohol because of an antisocial minority.
ASDA currently are only open to 10pm, so why do they need a 24 hour liquor licence? As a resident that over looks ASDA, I am already distrubed by their out of hours operation.
Off course what will happen is if this licence is granted the store will open 24 hours a day to the inconvenience of houses less than 20 feet away.
Naturally I am not aware of your understanding of the history surrounding this store, but houses were sold and occupied on Priory Chase prior to the application for the store being granted, and having been told by Wimpeys Sales Agents that the proposed store was to be no bigger than a Tesco Express. As you can clearly see, this store is much larger than that.
ASDA have billed themselves, prior to opening, as being a local convenience store, it therefore doesn’t need to be open 24 hours per day.
At no point has it been mentioned that those causing the litter are under 18s, the groups of youths that I have witnessed (and there have been many) have varied in ages from 14/15 to perhaps 19/20 year olds, there is nothing to prevent the older youths purchasing alcohol during normal store hours for the younger members of their group.
As for local police arresting them for theft? Well that would require a police presence in the area – and I have only seen them on the development 2 or 3 times in the 3 years I have lived on that development! That is despite numerous calls being made to the Police about anti-social behaviour, which have not been followed up by the police. It would appear to me that the police force in Rayleigh are more interested in retrospective policing rather than proactive policing.
Corey, this is something I noticed a while back but never picked up on it. Before now you have written “…will be no bigger than a Tesco Express” but instead written “Tesco Metro”. I was wondering which of these you were told, as the two are very different. Tesco Express is the petrol station sized one, and Tesco Metro is the size that used to occupy where Clintons Cards is now on Southend High Street (the only other example that springs to mind is the one at Canary Wharf), and the Asda store is the same size as the Tesco Metros.
As a result of the objections received in respect of this application, a Licensing Hearing is to take place at 10AM on 03/02/2009 at the Civic Suite in Rayleigh.
Licensing – Thanks for the very prompt information – I’m sure our readers will appreciate being advised.
152, It should always read Express – Tesco have so many variations of a name – it’s sometimes hard to remember which is which!