Heated legal battle ensues as council defers licence decision
A HEARING to decide on a licence for a Derbyshire events venue broke out into an argument between lawyers for the council and the applicant.
At an Amber Valley Borough Council licensing hearing this week, councillors were due to decide on whether to grant a premises licence for Mapperley Farm, in a Derbyshire village close to Ilkeston.
A premises licence enables a venue to serve alcohol and play music and to extend this beyond 11pm. It also allows residents to call for a review if there are issues.
However, after hearing evidence and leaving the council chamber to consider and debate the proposals, councillors felt they did not have enough evidence to make a decision.
They chose to defer the decision for a couple of weeks. This caused an argument between the council’s legal adviser, Natalie Osei, and the lawyer for the applicants, Walaiti Rathore.
Mr Rathore, from Nottingham, argued that a meeting could only be deferred if there were public interest reasons, claiming this was not the case and that he was “merely following the law”. Earlier in the hearing he had said, “but what do I know, I’ve only been doing this for 20-plus years?”, referring also to work he had
carried out for the Home Office, advising councils around the country on licensing policies and law.
Ms Osei told the hearing: “The panel has decided that it needs to seek additional information from the environmental health officer before it can make a final decision. However, to try and move things forward, the panel is prepared to propose conditions to consider until we can get the environmental health officer to the hearing to answer questions.”
Mr Rathore responded: “An adjournment should only be made in the public interest and I don’t see the public interest here. What are the concerns that we can’t consider now? Put them to us and it is likely we will accept the conditions.
“I am not sure what the environmental health officer can be asked to justify the public interest argument.
We talked at the start about how she (the environmental health officer) would not be present and her written statement would be taken as written.
“We don’t need a noise limiter but if conditioned, this can be agreed now. There has to be a public interest, not just some queries.”
Ms Osei said: “We have noted your statements in response to the adjournment.”
Cllr John Porter said: “For the betterment of the whole village and the area, the business is a part of the community, it is important that we get it right, come with us on that.”
Ms Osei said: “Cllr Porter has spoken brilliantly, it is important, and if councillors decide they have insufficient material to make a decision, that is their decision.”
Mr Rathore said: “We need to see written reasons for the adjournment for the public interest argument. If this was going to be adjourned, it should have been done at the beginning.”
Ms Osei responded: “The members of the panel cannot see into the future to see what you’re going to say and I don’t know what the environmental health officer will say.”
Mr Rathore said the European Court of Human Rights had clear policies on the public interest and compliance with open justice.
Ms Osei said the issue was “not a public interest matter”.
In a break while the licensing panel had been adjourned to discuss the evidence, a heated argument broke out between Ms Osei and Mr Rathore, in which the council’s legal adviser said the applicant’s lawyer, who had been raising his voice, was “getting defensive”.
The owners of Mapperley Farm, ED Glover and Sons, currently host a frequent number of weddings and other events such as christenings, wakes and birthday parties. For their large event nights, they obtain temporary event notices to allow entertainment to continue until midnight, from 11pm. The application they have submitted asks for permanent permission up until 1am, every day of the week, all year.
Rosie Amber, one of the site operators, told the hearing this would allow the venue to accept bookings any day of the week depending on requests made by clients, but would not see the site used every day, due to the required set-up time.
She told the hearing a large wedding event takes four-and-a-half days to set up, host and clear up and events in the fields towards West Hallam only take place between May and September.
Ms Amber, who has been running the venue for nine years, said: “Local residents in Mapperley know we are open to discussions with regards to the running of Mapperley Farm. We are quite an open and honest business and are conscientious about the community but have never had any issues.”
She said sound monitors were in place on the site which ensure music automatically cuts off if it hits 70 decibels. She said woodland and distance from the farm to West Hallam helped reduce noise.
Discussing each formal objection submitted to the council, she said “they have never made official complaints or anything, if it even was us that was causing the noise”.
She said: “All the objectors seem to think we are only open until 11pm and we have always closed at midnight.”
Ms Amber said the business has clients seeking bookings five years in advance and the venue is doing this without the reassurance it will have permission to do so. She said the business is run “considerately and respectfully”.
“We feel we are an asset to the village. The business has enabled our farm to survive by diversifying.”