New Portsmouth Kwikimart in London Road, Hilsea gets provisional late alcohol licence - despite fears of nuisance

Portsmouth City Council’s licensing sub-committee approved the full hours for the Kwikimart in London Road on Fridays and Saturdays but said they would enforce an 11pm limit for the rest of the week.

However Tuesday’s decision has yet to be finalised because the council didn’t have a legal advisory available to attend the meeting and so a formal notice has yet to be issued. This is expected this week.

'This is only a speculative decision,' chairman George Madgwick said. 'We've made a decision that we will be granting the licence… to maintain the licensable activities that are consistent with the local area [in terms of timing].

'We aim to maintain consistency with the other local licensed premises to be in parallel with the public house and other local facilities.’

Hilsea ward councillor Russell Simpson, who was one of two people to object to the application submitted by business owner Panchalingam Aranan, said the absence of any objection from Hampshire Police was down to a lack of trust between the force and the public.

'For the last four months there has been a significant police presence, through Operation Relief, due to continuous crime and anti-social behaviour,' he said. 'There is real concern that residents have lost faith in the police and are therefore not reporting anti-social behaviour or crime.'

He said this meant police records were incomplete and explained why its licensing officers did not make any comments on the application.

Mr Aranan, who runs 10 shops across the city, all of which have licences to sell alcohol, had applied for the licence to cover 6am to midnight seven days a week to facilitate the opening of his latest in the former Minuteman printing shop at Forbes Court.

Last year his Albert Road store was banned from selling alcohol between 2am and 7am at a licensing hearing called to consider complaints it was fuelling anti-social behaviour.

His solicitor Jon Wallsgrove said it was not in the interests of the business to allow these issues and that Mr Aranan’s experience should allay concerns.

‘Nobody’s going to want to shop if they’re having to walk through people who are causing a nuisance outside,' he said. 'Mr Aranan is an experienced operator and he's had shops in Portsmouth for 19 years.

‘So, of course, he has to put in place proper due diligence within these stores to make sure that the objectives are promoted.'

He said the reduced hours would have an impact on the business which was designed to offer a ‘top up’ for people above their weekly grocery shop and it needed to open at ‘unsociable hours’.

‘Alcohol does form a fundamental part of the convenience store concept but no more so than any of the other sort of fundamental products that you want to find in a convenience store,' he added. 'All of those things are key elements to running a successful convenience store [but] without one of those elements the store doesn't stand much chance of success.’

Cllr Madgwick said a formal decision would be drafted over the coming days before the legal notice is issued.