Tuesday 28 July 2009

Licensing issue - Garston Old Road

I am currently following up on an issue about a licensing application on Garston Old Road. This is for an "alcohol off sales only" license from 6 am to 11pm 7 days a week at number 81, which is the old Spar shop - currently closed. I have been speaking to some residents and there is some concern about potential problems here. Some objections have already been sent in but Licensing Laws are a bit barmy so in order for the elected councillors to make comments/objections on any application we need to be specifically appointed by a resident (apart from those instances where we live very near the premises and very means very in these cases). Anyway, there is a useful page on the City Council website about how to comment on applications (www.liverpool.gov.uk - then look for the section on Licensing Act 2003) which spells out the four licensing objectives and gives an explanation of the process. The deadline for comments on this one is in early August. I don't know when the licensing committee will meet but I will post any news on this on the blog.

3 comments:

PM Swimmer said...

I know I mentioned this in another, recent and therefore not yet posted, comment but as you are discussing licensing for a business albeit and alcohol license I think its worth bringing it up here as well.

What are the licensing requirements for tanning salons? Who monitors, checks and polices them?
Given their now classification as a cancer risk of the same seriousness of asbestos and smoking is the city council going to do anything to reduce the numbers of these frighteningly dangerous businesses?

You seem, rightly, concerned about fast fooderies, alcohol licenses and smoking yet these places are far worse, they seem entirely unregulated, staff by people with little or no qualifications or understanding of the risk and open to abuse both in terms of age of client, and the number of visits that can be made.
In addition they have links to money laundering and give the city a reputation as a footballer wives obsessed, backwards, chav town, that so much of the recent investment has been trying to break. That unpleasant kreasote colour is quite widely referred to as 'scouse marinade' though thankfully only within the city as far as I can tell at the moment.

I am seriously concerned that the UK government and city council has allowed a huge health crisis to be created for the city in 10-15 years and I'm not sure how todays leaders will be able to answer for their failure to prevent large numbers of girls being afflicted by malignate skin cancers, nor do I know how the city will pay should a lawsuit establish any level of negligance, if you do have licensing powers.

The recent International Agency for Research on Cancer findings should give you all the cover you need to act on this matter, so show some political leadership and act!

PM Swimmer said...

Hate to bang on about this but as comment went missing I feel the need to repeat it.

What can and is the council doing on the licensing of tanning salons.

These are about as big a cancer risk as you can get and the effects are going to be disproportionately faced by poorer, poorly educated, young women.

They do damaage to the city's reputation being a hallmark of a so called 'Chav town'.

And I get the feeling that the city council and central government have niether the will, the ability or even the inclination to address the issue.

Paula Keaveney said...

Not sure about tanning salons monitoring etc. I know there was a call by an MP (whose name escapes me for a while) for a crackdown or at least for some better regulation of these. From memory this centered on the use of salons by under 16s - particulary when there was no supervision and people were doing horrendous damage to their skin. Its an interesting question. If I can dig anything up I will post about it separately