Hailsham coffee shop secures alcohol licence

On Thursday (November 5), a Wealden District Council licensing panel approved an application linked to The Snug — a coffee shop at 51 High Street in Hailsham.

Business owner Julia Field told councillors the coffee shop has been operating from the premises for more than 11 years, with the licence intended to expand its current offering.

Ms Field said: “With the way things are we feel we need to progress the business. We, quite often, get asked if we can do baby showers, afternoon teas and they then go on to ask ‘can we have prosecco’ and things like that.

“We feel like we want to bring the business on a little bit and be able to offer things like that.”

She added: “[It is] just another string to our bow, just something else we can offer, keep up with what other people are doing; getting Hailsham High Street bustling and people interested”.

Through her application Ms Field had been seeking a licence to sell alcohol between 8am and 10pm, Monday to Saturday.

The hearing had been called due to an objection from a neighbour, who had (among other matters) raised concerns about the introducing evening opening hours to the business.

Among other requests, the objector had asked for the licensed sale of alcohol to terminate earlier in the day and for additional restrictions to be placed on when the business could use its garden.

Ms Field acknowledged how the business currently closes at 4pm, but also noted how it is able to open later if it wishes.

She had said the 10pm licence was intended to provide flexibility for occasional events and was not planning to change the coffee shop’s normal closing time.

“We just want to be able to offer it if people would like it,” Ms Field said.

“It is not something that we are going to be doing noisy functions in the evening or things like that at. It is just going to be something that we can offer if necessary.”

She also said the business had already secured a licence for its other location in Eastbourne.

Ms Field said: “We were granted a licence at our Eastbourne shop just over a year ago now. We did have some opposition there, because we are literally opposite a residential building.

“But we haven’t caused any problems, we’ve had no complaints, nothing there, no rowdiness and the same will apply at Hailsham.”

Councillors said the objector had informed of the hearing but had chosen not to attend.

No objections had been raised by any responsible authorities, such as Sussex Police or the council’s own environmental health department.

For its part, Sussex Police had agreed a number of conditions with the business. These included several standard conditions, such as the use of CCTV and the keeping of an incidents and refusals log.

Police had also requested a table service condition, which requires alcoholic beverages to be served via waiting to persons seated at tables. It also requires substantial food to be available to customers at all times.

After hearing from Ms Field, the panel agreed to grant the licence for the hours requested. Councillors did not indicate whether they intended to apply any additional conditions.