On Thursday (January 8), a Hastings Borough Council licensing panel considered an application linked to The She — a bar and Thai restaurant in George Street.
The business’s current licence requires any alcohol sales after 9pm to be made via “a waiter or waitress service”. These sales can only be made to seated customers, who must be able to order food at any time they can order a drink.
Owner Ben Beckett said this restriction had been deterring customer since he took control of the premises in August last year.
Mr Beckett said:“People tend to come to the bar and they don’t want to sit down. They like to stand at the bar and have a drink with their mates. That is what we are experiencing.
“It is hard to tell people to sit down. I have been telling people to sit down and they have been sitting down, but then they leave and then the bar empties out and I’m left with no customers.”
Mr Beckett had sought to remove the condition on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as on some days preceding bank holidays and local cultural events.
Mr Beckett also told the committee the removal of conditions would only allow the business to accommodate up to 10 additional customers.
He also stressed the business would remain “predominantly” as a Thai restaurant and indicated that he would not object to a condition preventing inside tables from being cleared away to allow for more standing room.
He said: “I’d like to have people come and stand at my bar; like they [can already] do before nine o’clock. I’d like to be able to offer you a drink after nine o’clock on a Friday and Saturday.
“Food will still be on offer if that is what you require and we will still have tables upstairs for patrons to sit at.
“It would just allow us the flexibility. For people to be able to stand if they wish to and I don’t have to tell them to sit down.”
Mr Beckett’s licensing agent Simon Gordon highlighted the business’s extensive use of Temporary Event Notices (TENs) to hold DJ nights.
By using TENs, the business was able to operate as if it did not have the table service condition. The panel heard how no complaints had been lodged about any of these events, 11 of which had taken place in the past year.
It is due to hold its next DJ event on February 7.
Council officers and Sussex Police had objected to the removal of the condition, citing concerns around the potential for “public nuisance”.
These responsible bodies had highlighted how the business is located within a Cumulative Impact Zone (CIZ) — an area of the town where licensing changes are normally refused unless the applicant can demonstrate there will be “no negative cumulative impact.”
The panel also heard how the condition itself had been added to the premises licence as a result of an environmental health intervention in 2009. This was tied to a previous business — known as the Black Pearl — which had been based at the premises at the time.
Senior licensing officer Kirstie Rolfe said: “The condition they are asking to remove was added back in 2009 for a reason. That reason hasn’t gone away.
“We still get lots of complaints from residents about the noise, about people even just walking through the actual George Street area.
“That is the reason why we’ve got this [cumulative impact] policy in place.”
She added: “This premises has been using Temporary Event Notices for a couple of months now and I am happy to say we haven’t had any noise complaints. That is really good.
“[But] that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been and that doesn’t mean there won’t be. Now, these are temporary event notices; temporary being the main word there. If you have it all of the time, it is going to increase the likelihood of there being a cumulative problem in that area.”
The panel confirmed it would not allow for the condition to be removed from the licence.
This decision is open to appeal through the courts system for a period of 21 days.
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