Hailsham cricket club granted alcohol licence

A Hailsham sports club has been granted a licence to serve alcohol following a hearing earlier this week. 
Hailsham Cricket ClubHailsham Cricket Club
Hailsham Cricket Club

On Tuesday (July 28), a Wealden District Council licensing panel met to consider an application for the sale of alcohol at the Hailsham Cricket Club pavilion, which sits in the Western Road Recreation Ground.

The application came before the committee following opposition from a neighbour – Mark Kennedy of Western Road – who argued the hours sought by the club would be too late and would be likely to have a detrimental impact on neighbours.

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Mr Kennedy, who said he had lodged the objection in consultation with his neighbours, said he was not opposed to the granting of any licence, but felt the hours sought would have too great an impact.

He asked the committee to consider a compromise, which would limit the club’s licensable hours  to between 5.30pm to 9pm and 1pm to 9pm on weekends. This he said, could be supplemented by 12 late night licences, up to 11pm, throughout the year for club events.

During the hearing, councillors heard from both Mr Kennedy and Andrew Anthony, a representative of the cricket club. 

The hours suggested by Mr Kennedy were significantly lower than what the club applied for, however.

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The club had been seeking a licence to serve alcohol between 10am and 11pm Monday to Friday, 10am to 11.30pm on Saturdays and noon to 10.30pm on Sundays.

In light of Mr Kennedy’s concerns, Mr Anthony told councillors that the club would not object to an altered set of opening hours, but said it felt the hours sought were appropriate.

During the meeting, Mr Anthony said: “The reason we are looking to open the bar is so that we can have a community pub for our members to utilise and also to help us raise funds [for the club].

“Being an English Cricket Board governed club, we already have protocols in place in terms of safety, particularly for children. All of the committee, who as has been mentioned would be the ones doing the serving, are DBS checked and we have policies around child welfare.

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“We have already purchased signage, in terms of things like respecting the neighbours and [controlling] noise outside. We have quite a good relationship with the local community and we don’t want that to change.”

This argument saw some confusion from the licensing panel, however.

After retiring to consider the evidence, the panel opted to grant the licence, with the hours and conditions originally applied for by the club. 

These conditions included training for staff selling alcohol, a challenge 25 policy and record-keeping on incidents. 

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However, the panel also opted to add further conditions in an attempt to mitigate against Mr Kennedy’s concerns. 

These included conditions prohibiting the consumption of alcohol outside of the club after 9.30pm. The club was also directed to ensure its windows and doors remained closed (except for entrance and exit) after 10pm.

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