A Dewsbury off-licence can sell alcohol once again despite major fears being expressed by a local councillor who spoke of the area’s problem with street drinking.
An application was submitted to Kirklees Council for a premises licence in relation to Ravensthorpe Off-Licence at 618 Huddersfield Road. This sought to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises seven days a week between the hours of 8am and 11pm.
The application was decided at this week’s meeting of the council’s Licensing Panel and had received an objection from each of the three Dewsbury West ward councillors due to fears over public nuisance. Cllr Ammar Anwar (Independent) attended this week’s Licensing Panel meeting to voice his concerns.
He told the meeting that the area has a problem with street drinking, particularly in the bus shelter right outside of the off-licence, and that he sees this every day, living close by. He said: “If you go back on the CCTV in the last month, I can guarantee that on a daily basis, there are four to five people drinking in that bus shelter.
“A bus shelter is for bus users to keep out of the rain or snow to catch a bus from A to B. It is not to consume alcohol.”
He went on to give the example of a resident, ‘Mr X’, whose elderly mother suffering from dementia lives across from the shop. He said: “She has been put through hell for the past year and a half. I’ve visited them over 18 times since being elected.
“He provides me with pictures of what goes on. The final straw for me was one of the images of two children, school girls, that were consuming alcohol believed to be bought from those premises, in the bus shelter, with another two adults that are there on a daily basis.
“Either the adults, I assume, bought it for the kids, or somehow the kids managed to get it and they were drinking there.”
A Licensing Consultant, Tony Clarke, who was speaking on behalf of the applicant wanted to make it very clear that the examples given by Cllr Anwar were not due to the current applicant’s actions and that they had either occurred before he took ownership of the premises or while the shop was closed, as has been the case for the last three weeks.
Mr Clarke said that the applicant should not be “tarnished with the same brush” as previous owners of the off-licence, especially due to the shop’s problematic history which was brought up by panel members during the meeting.
Under previous ownership, the off-licence failed a test purchase by West Yorkshire Police (WYP) in August 2023, which resulted in alcohol being sold to a child. The licence holder – the person responsible for the day-to-day operation of the shop surrendered the licence immediately.
A subsequent application was submitted to the council to transfer the licence to another person but WYP objected, fearing that the proposed transfer was “a way for the shop to keep retailing alcohol after failing a test purchase”. This application was rejected by the Licensing Panel.
The meeting heard that the current applicant is of no relation to the previous owners of the shop and that he became owner in October of last year.
After deliberating, the panel decided to grant the licence with the following conditions:
- Three CCTV cameras are installed internally and three more are installed externally that are operational during licensing hours.
- The applicant and his staff are trained in dealing with difficult customers in relation to crime and antisocial behaviour.
- The applicant is to work with the Licensing Departments and the Police to resolve any issues.
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