Licensing Sub Committee - Tuesday 19 May 2026, 10:15am - Epping Forest District Council webcasts

Licensing Sub Committee
Tuesday, 19th May 2026 at 10:15am 

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  1. Cllr Louise Mead
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  1. Serena Shani
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  1. Cllr Lisa Morgan
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  5. Peter Jones
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  9. Cllr Tippy Cornish
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  13. Cllr Barbara Cohen
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  17. Cllr Tippy Cornish
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  20. Cllr Louise Mead
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1 Webcasting Introduction

Cllr Louise Mead - 0:00:03
Welcome to this licencing subcommittee on Tuesday 19th May 2026. I am going to read
out the webcasting introduction. I would like to remind everyone that this meeting
will be filmed live or recorded and uploaded to the internet and will be capable of repeated
viewing. Therefore, by participating in this meeting, you are consenting to being filmed
and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings. Members and public speakers
are reminded to turn on their microphones before speaking and turn them off when they have finished.
So again a warm welcome my name is Councillor Louise Mead and I'm chairing the subcommittee
this morning. I'm just going to make a few introductions. To my left is Amanda Apcar
who is our legal representative from the council, Serena Sharni from Democratic Services and Steve
Mitchell who is the webcast and on the committee making the decision this morning is myself,
Councillor Easmid, Councillor Cohen and Councillor Cornish.
We also have observing Councillor Morgan.
Okay, thank you.

2 Apologies for Absence

Are there any, oh, sorry, for the,
I've just introduced you to the licencing department,
Peter Jones, who is the senior licencing officer
and David King, who is the head of licencing over there.
So are there any apologies for absence?
Serena.
Serena Shani - 0:01:28
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:01:32
There are no apologies for absence chair. Are there any declarations of interest for this item?

3 Declarations of Interest

Thank you, I believe that I should
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:01:40
Give a declaration of the fact that I have even I'm an observer
I'm a member of Chiggle Parish Council and it has been discussed there
Also, I'm on the whatsapp group where it has been discussed by
members of the public, mainly on planning issues.
And I've told them that has to be on licencing issues
and who they need to speak to
rather than do it on the WhatsApp group.
So I just want to be above board
that I have had people contact me
and I've just told them they need to speak
to the licencing committee.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Milgrom.
That would be noted.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:02:12
And do we have any other declarations of interest?
No, thank you.
Item four is procedure for the proceedings.

4 Procedure for the Conduct of Business

So the procedure for proceedings have been published
with the agenda and all attendees have had a chance to look through those proceedings.
So we'll go straight on to item number five which is application for premises licence

5 Application for Premises Licence - Tesco Express, Chigwell

Tesco Chigwell. Before we continue, I just wanted to note that members of the committee
have received emails after the end of the consultation period. However, these members
have been reminded that these emails will be disregarded and they will not be taken
into any consideration.
The way we will do this is the application will be presented by the licencing department
and then we will have a presentation of the applicant's case.
There will be questions for the applicant's case from the subcommittee here, questions
for the applicant from the objectors.
The objectors can present a case, we can question the objectors, there can be questions for
the objectors from the applicant and then there will be closing statements by objectors
and the applicant and we will then retire to make our decision.
Could I ask you to introduce yourselves on this side please if that's okay.
Now just to explain you press the button and when you finish speaking if you could turn
Public Speaker - 0:03:44
it off because we can only have two microphones at the same time.
So if you could introduce yourself please.
I'm very grateful, good morning.
My name's Jeremy Bark.
I'm from BCLP representing Tesco this morning.
To my right, left as you're looking,
is Hardeach Purewell, who's the UK senior licencing
manager for Tesco.
And again to her right, your left as you're looking,
is Mr Sudhamani, who is the potential store
manager for this Tesco.
Should a licence be granted?
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Would you like to introduce yourselves?
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:04:18
Good morning, thank you, Chair.
Public Speaker - 0:04:21
Jason Selvarajah, I'm the Clerk and Proper Officer of Chigwell Parish Council.
Would you like to introduce yourself if you would like?
I'm Jack Lessing and I'm just a parishioner. I just live in Chigwell.
Thank you very much.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:04:38
We're going to start with our licencing department for their presentation, please.
Peter Jones - 0:04:44
Thank you, Chair. As you mentioned, this is a committee to determine an application for
a premises licence in respect of 177 High Road at Chigwell made by Tesco Stores. The
application seeks the sale of alcohol for consumption off the premises from 6am until
midnight with late night refreshment from 11pm until midnight. This application was
received on 17 March and the full consultation took place. All responsible authorities received
the application, it was advertised correctly at the premises and in the local newspaper.
The Authority received five valid objections in total from parish council and four residents
and they relate to all four of the licencing objectives. Responses were also received from
Fire Service, Safeguarding, Essex Police, Environmental Health and Planning. In respect of planning,
their comments related to the permitted hours under planning use and you are reminded that
section 1 .7 of the policy does state that there are circumstances where conditions of
a planning permission, a terminal hour has been set for the use of the premises for commercial
purposes, where these hours are different to the licencing hours granted, the earlier
closing time must be observed. Premises operating in breach of their planning permission would
be liable to enforcement action from the planning department. That therefore means regardless
of whatever hour you permit for licencing, they would not be able to open past 10pm without
varying that planning consent. Your duty here today is to determine the application and
you can grant the application as applied for. You can vary that application in terms of
timings, additional conditions, et cetera, but you should have regard to all four of
the licencing objectives, the Statement of Licencing Policy and the Section 182 guidance.
If there's anything else, Chair, please ask.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:06:35
Okay, thank you very much. So, the applicant, would you like to present your case, please?
Public Speaker - 0:06:38
I'm very grateful and thank you. What I was going to try and do this morning was just
explain what a Tesco Express is, deal with some of the procedures and policies that we
have, not least because there are those that are objecting who are present today, which
may or may not provide some form of reassurance, and then just touch on some of the policy
considerations if that's okay. From the outset there's a slight amendment we
wish to make to the application which is to reduce the hours sought for the sale
of alcohol to 6 a .m. every day to 11 p .m. so it's effectively a reduction of one
hour. That will also mean that late night refreshment falls away. In case anyone
was wondering what late night refreshment was for it's not because we
fast food takeaway, it's because we have vending machines within our stores and
because we control the way in which we issue a token it's licence but if it was
just putting cash in the machine it wouldn't be so that would have been the
only issue in any event. In terms of Tesco Express it's the smallest format of
store that Tesco operates. We've done it now for getting over 40 years without
being arrogant we like to think we know what we're doing and that we've
developed and involved a range of systems and procedures, many of them aimed at best
practise to make sure it operates very well and doesn't have or leave a
footprint, a negative footprint and the surrounding area. It's designed for
people who want to typically do shopping for the next two to four meals, so the
average customer will typically leave with about a bag to a bag and a half
worth of shopping or they'll do their top -up shopping. So within that format
You typically have around 5 ,000 products that are available.
Of that, there is a very small alcohol range.
So within this format, typically, you'll
have somewhere between 90 and about 115 products,
the vast majority of which will be red and white wine.
And the whole product range is designed
to go to people who are effectively doing their shop
for the next three to four meals.
So the only promotions within this format related to alcohol
will be linked with a meal deal where you might be able to buy a starter, a main course,
and a pudding and a bottle of wine.
But in terms of individual alcohol products, we don't really do promotions in this format,
and certainly not from a national perspective.
The other thing in terms of the percentage of alcohol sales within the average store,
and we have just over 2 ,000 that trade in this format, is that the total sales of alcohol
of other sales is well below 15%.
And again, another key stat is well over 95 % of the sales of alcohol are linked to the
sales of other goods.
And so when you talk about traditional off -licences, you might think somewhere where you just go
to buy alcohol, that is certainly not this, but we need an off -licence.
Again in terms of hours, unless there are specific issues, particularly where the police
might have made reps or others might have made reps, we will seek to apply for alcohol
hours in line with our proposed opening hours. That's entirely what we're doing here. I'll
address the planning point a little bit later briefly. In terms of volumes of sales in the
early hours, it's very small, but the way that we look at it is that if someone legitimately
wants to buy alcohol at, say, half six in the morning or half or seven in the morning
and there is no reason to refuse them, they should have that freedom if the store is going
to be already open given the range of other things that we do.
We like to think that we are a very responsible operator.
We have a good neighbour policy.
What that really means is we will listen to the neighbours and try to have the least impact
possible, and at all times we will try and promote best practise, and I'll come on to
that.
Very quickly in terms of the ethos, I'll probably deal with the policy now.
As you all know, it's a very experienced committee, but again we have others here.
The scheme of the Act, unless there is a cumulative impact policy area and there isn't, is to
effectively grant the application unless there is good evidence to restrict, and there has
to be good evidence to restrict.
Might be slightly challenging on a new premises licence because there is unlikely to be clear
evidence that there may be what I would describe as fears, but they certainly can't have been
realised yet.
The other thing you're entitled to do is to pay great weight on the views of the statute
authorities.
advice, if you look at paragraph 9 .12 of the Government Guidance, it recognises that they
are all experts in their field. As Mr Jones has already said, each of those statutory
authorities has acknowledged the application, none of them object. Not only did none of
them object, they were quite happy with ours from 6 till midnight, so much longer. There's
a long line of case law that says that you are entitled to and probably should place
great weight on a lack of objection. Again, I'll return to that at the end.
Terms of planning, I'll address that now. Clearly your policy reflects the law, reflects
the section 182 guidance, but from paragraphs 1 .5 to 1 .7 it clearly envisages that there
doesn't have to be a marriage between the hours for planning and the hours for licencing.
That kind of makes sense because otherwise you would never be able to apply for your
licencing hours unless you vary the planning. I can confirm that Tesco doesn't tend to
vary the planning and therefore at this moment in time, yes, there is a mismatch, but in
the event that that application for planning was not successful, effectively as Mr Jones
has said, it's like the law of concentric circles. Whichever is the most restrictive
we'd have to adhere to, so if there was a difference between planning hours and licencing
hours, including there are different criteria, then we would have to stick to whichever is
the most restrictive.
And in fact, there are many cases for licenced premises around the country where that is
exactly the case and hence why the government guidance to your policy is as it is.
In terms of how Tesco operates some of the best practise things, I'm just going to counter
through a range of our training policies on why we think we are an incredibly responsible
operator and many of the things that have been expressed by those subjecting, we simply
don't think are to be realised and it may also explain the views of some of the statutory
authorities. First and foremost we have something called a Challenge 25 policy, which is effectively
an age restriction policy. Tesco were the first company many, many years ago before
the Licencing Act to introduce an age restricted policy, having sat down with the association
chief police officers and the home office.
At that time it was Challenge 21, we were the first to do it and others followed.
We were then the first in the off -licence sector to move nationally to a Challenge 25
policy having trialled it.
We even trialled I think 30 policies, so again I make that point because we take these things
incredibly seriously.
The way it works now is it's linked to the TILs, so whenever an age restricted product
is scanned, a tool prompt will come up and it will say Challenge 25, yes or no.
If yes is pressed by the checkout assistant, then it will mean one of two things. Either
the person appeared to be over the age of 25 and there was no other overriding reason
to refuse the sale or they appear to be under the age of 25, had a valid form of ID and
again there was no overriding reason to refuse the sale. If no is pressed, then it could
mean one of two things. Someone was challenged for ID and couldn't produce it, or there was
some other overriding reason to refuse the sale. We might have thought it was going to
be proxy purchase, we might have thought the person was intoxicated, there was some concern
on the part of the checkout system. The levels we go in getting these systems right, every
day there is a further prompt that appears that updates every day and it simply says
a person who was 18 today would have a date of birth of, whatever the date of birth is,
So when you look at the form of ID, the maths is taken out of it for the less numerous amongst
us, et cetera.
Again, it shows those levels.
There is point of sale material at the tills and also the alcohol displaced.
Remind people of that.
It's backed up by audits.
It's backed up by training.
Tesco, as you would imagine, does a lot of auditing.
The two key things here are we use 18 and 19 -year -olds every quarter through a third -party
company to make sure that the Challenge 25 policy is working.
All of those results come back to the business.
They will come back to Hardee's as well as the senior lighting
manager so if there are any failures you can look at them
and work out what to do with them.
We share all of that information with the statute of authority if
they want to see it.
On top of that, the area manager and the manager will sit down
every quarter and go through a process we call safe and legal,
looking at any licences that we have in place, are the terms being adhered to, looking at
the legislation and looking at the Tesco's own policies to make sure everything is as
it should be. So again, it's not that we get a licence and we just plough on, we are constantly
looking at that. In terms of training, massively comprehensive. Every member of staff who's
role involves a sale of alcohol as part of their induction gets alcohol -related training.
They can't go in the shops until they've had that.
The alcohol -related training is, as far I'm aware, still the only training which has won
the British Institutes of Inkeeping Good Practise Recognition Scheme Award.
So it's the national body for training.
It's been validated by them.
It takes the form of DVDs and other materials and it actually uses actors and Tesco employees
to demonstrate what good practise looks like and what bad looks like.
massively detailed, but it covers off in particular underage
sales, proxy purchasing, dealing with the intoxicated,
dealing with rough sleepers, et cetera, et cetera.
The management team will then get enhanced training that's
relevant to licencing, including conflict resolution training,
not because we expect there to be conflicts,
but we like to train and empower people to be able to do their
job as they should be able to.
In terms of policies, two key ones.
We have an incredibly detailed responsible retailing of alcohol policy.
I can sum it up in the following way.
We train, encourage and empower all members of staff to refuse any sale of alcohol where they've got any concern whatsoever.
We back that up with probably the critical policy.
You say no, we say no.
If a member of the public is aggrieved by refusal and complains to the management team, the management will always support the refusal in every case, without fail.
Similarly, many, many years ago, I think we were the first company to do it in this sector,
others have followed, you cannot get any scores relating to bonus or how the store performs
based on alcohol sales.
You can fail if you're not complying with any of the policies, etcetera.
So again, it's removing any of the incentives around the sale of alcohol.
Some of the other key things is Tesco and Vyha Hardish,
a member of Community Alcohol Partnerships.
I'm sure you're aware of that committee.
It's a body that's set up to deal with local initiatives
and reduce alcohol harms.
She's also the chair of the Retail Alcohol Standards Group,
which is all the leading supermarket sharing best
practise within the off -licence sector.
On top of that, Tesco has CCTV within all its stores.
It's colour, it's digital, it records for the record period of time.
It has fixed locations on the entrance exit, on the tills and the alcohol displays.
We also now issue at least four body cams for use by staff on the floor and if there's
a security guard, it's a security guard as well.
We'll have one of those.
Again, a further way of both capturing evidence but also as a deterrent.
Staffing levels within this format are high.
We will have a management team of four, so general manager plus three team leaders, which
is to try and ensure that a member of the management team is on duty when the store
is open.
And we will then typically have between 15 and 21 members of staff, depending on the
part -time, full -time mix of those that are employed within the store.
In terms of alcohol, I've already said it's a small carefully selected range, but in terms
of beers, lagers and ciders, say for craft beers or premium products, we don't sell anything
with an ABV of greater than 5 .5%.
And we also say for those craft and premium products,
don't sell in less than four packs.
So people can't just come in and buy a single tin,
which has typically been associated today
for the years with certain problems.
Again, I think we're the first company to do that.
So the spirits, it's a very small range.
I'm typically no more than about 10 products or so.
We always store spirits behind the counter.
We don't ever have those on the shop floors.
We also don't sell miniatures deliberately.
The only time we would do that is as part of a gift pack.
So say it was Father's Day, you might get a small miniature of whiskey with golf balls,
golf socks, golf tees, but not on its own.
Very, very quickly as well to show you the limited range of alcohol, et cetera.
Excuse me, sorry.
This is the plan that appears on page 33 of your committee page.
So I'm probably going to stand up now so everyone can see this.
So main high street here, entrance exits the premises there, checkouts are all here
which is always in good visibility, you can see people coming in to announce the
store. That is where the spirits would be displayed, these are the other proposed
alcohol displays. What you can see from that is quite a large footprint, floor
area, lots of mods for other goods, the alcohol is just a small part of that.
So again, it's part of that convenience model.
In terms of security, what Tesco does is it risk assesses the need for security.
It will do it at a frequency of no less than eight weeks.
Where we identify the need for security we will employ it on such days and such times
to such numbers as we need.
We like to do it that way because it allows flexibility.
I will give you some great examples as to how that works in practise.
We have a store in Ascot on the High Street which for 51 weeks of the year doesn't need security.
For one week of the year when Royal Ascot is taking place we have two members of security on site.
So again, not a conditional licence, we have security in many stores but we do it on that risk assessment basis.
Which is exactly as we would do here at present, we don't think there's a need for security but we will carry on risk assessing eight weeks out.
and if we identify there's a need, then we will do so.
Clearly the police who are involved in crime disorder
are happy with that, they understand what we do.
We clean within and without the stores on a daily basis,
so the shop frontage, et cetera.
We also will aim to have a bin at the entrance to the store.
I would love to be able to give you a guarantee
that we could ensure that every member of the public
used it, obviously can't do that,
but those facilities are clearly there.
In terms of antisocial behaviour,
Our stance is quite simple on that.
We don't tolerate bad behaviour within our stores.
If people behave badly, we ask them to stop.
If they won't stop, we ask them to leave.
If they won't leave, we'll call the police and we will ban them.
We operate something called a Rose Gallery.
One of the other things that we do, pretty much on a weekly basis, is the store manager
will sit down with the area manager and they'll go through every aspect of the store to make
sure that it's working.
If there is anything they think can be improved, then they will look through the process of
should we improve this and if so, how do we do it in a lawful and proper way.
So again, it's part of that system of Tesco looking at everything incredibly carefully.
One of the other innovations that Tesco implemented about five years ago, we have something called
a hub facility, which is a facility based in Bedfordshire and that is manned 24 -7 by
about certainly over 100 people where they can access the CCTV
coverage from the store or provide support.
So if there were ever to be an issue within the store,
the member of staff on duty can press a button which gives them
direct access to the hub.
They will then be supported by people who are SIA trained from
there.
They can port into the cameras.
They can put the cameras on the screen within the store if
they're tracking an individual.
They can also control the Tanoi system, et cetera.
and if needs be, you can call the emergency services.
So yet another process that we have in place,
not because we think we're gonna need it very often,
but effectively preparing in the event that we can.
In terms of the objections
that have been made very, very quickly,
clearly need has been mentioned, need is not an issue.
There are lots of transport and other sort of parking issues
which are more planning than licence.
I wasn't going to touch on those.
Clearly in terms of planning hours and lighting hours,
I dealt with all of that,
But what I would effectively say to you is there is no evidence in our view to restrict
this licence.
Clearly, the key statutory authorities, the police for crime disorder, environmental health
for public nuisance, trading standards for protection of children from harm are content
with this application.
We understand why the residents may have fears.
We simply have a disagreement that they're not going to rise in practise.
should they ever arise, there's clearly the power of review of a licence, we don't think
that we've needed. This is a location that is fairly typical for Tesco within its 2 ,000
stores and therefore we would hope that you would grant the application as sought between
the hours of 6am and 11pm. I realise I've spoken for a little while but we just want
to be comprehensive given what's been said. Thank you, I'm just going to cheque that there's
nothing else. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
I think, did you want to say something?
Yeah, no?
Okay, thank you.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:24:38
Thank you very much.
So we now ask questions from the subcommittee.
So do you have any questions, councillors?
Councillor Cornish.
I have a question.
Cllr Tippy Cornish - 0:24:50
You speak about the Think25 policy.
Could you tell me how often that fails?
Have you got statistics?
Public Speaker - 0:25:06
So, clearly it's obviously not a legal failure, but in terms of the mystery shopping that
we do, then the failure rate is less than 10%.
Whenever we fail there will then be corrective actions.
So Hardeeshan team will speak to the store manager,
look in, they can go and do training, et cetera, et cetera.
We will share that then with other people.
If you were to benchmark that against the industry,
our pass rate in terms of that is incredibly high.
In terms of actual statutory test purchasing,
which is using people who are under 18s,
then our failure rate is much lower than that,
if that helps.
Thank you.
Do you have any other questions, Councillor Cornish, at the moment?
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:26:03
Cllr Tippy Cornish - 0:26:06
Cllr Barbara Cohen - 0:26:08
You said you don't sell cans of beer or lager separately.
So how many is the smallest amount of beer you sell in a group?
Public Speaker - 0:26:19
So typically, if it's not a premium product, it's not a glass bottle, etc., then it will be in a four -pack.
And as I say, part of the reason for that, that has been a Tesco policy for at least
30 years, I think.
And one of the aims behind that was to not make the convenience stores that are more
local a place where people just go in.
And I think the colloquial language is buy a tinny.
And so it's something that obviously within Tesco, well in Garden City, we have lots of
people who build into this, including ex police officers, various people who seek advice.
That's one of the key reasons why we do it that way.
And you mentioned a vending machine.
Cllr Barbara Cohen - 0:27:00
I assume there's no alcohol in a vending machine.
100%. So it's purely a hot drinks vending machine.
Public Speaker - 0:27:09
So at the moment we tend to use a very well -known brand name.
Might be Costa Coffee, might not be.
So you could get tea, coffee, hot chocolate from it.
but it's literally a non -alcoholic hot drinks machine that you will see in lots of different places.
A lot of people just allow you to put coins into that machine and then you get your drink.
We don't, we require you to buy a token because we want more control and you then use the token.
So had we been seeking longer hours that would have been the late night refreshment.
Thank you. Councillor Cornish did you have something else to say?
Thank you. I do have another question.
Cllr Tippy Cornish - 0:27:43
It's regarding deliveries.
What times, if you want this hours longer, what times are your deliveries or are they
not structured?
Public Speaker - 0:27:59
So in terms of deliveries to the store, it's all covered by the current planning consent,
so there is an approved delivery plan.
It will be within the hours of the store that's currently permitted, so the current trading
hours into planning are 7 till 10 and 8 till 10, so 7 till 10 Monday to Saturday and 8
till 10 on Sundays. We're obviously seeking to vary that. As I understand it, we're not
seeking to vary the transport. There has been a transport plan done, but there should not
be, I think, I understand, any deliveries before 7 in the morning on any day. Clearly,
there won't be any after 10 o 'clock at night because we don't do out of hours
deliveries where it's Tesco products coming in. Okay thank you very much.
Cllr Tippy Cornish - 0:28:48
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:28:50
Do you do home deliveries from that shop? We have a whoosh operation which is I
Public Speaker - 0:28:59
guess the rapid delivery service. I don't know whether it's scheduled yet to be on
on there but it's likely that it will because it's a really popular service.
So will you have motorbikes outside? There's a kind of a variation of
transport so it's motorbikes, bikes so there'll be because we have we kind of
used the third -party supplier to provide that. Again in terms that there's
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:29:35
Public Speaker - 0:29:37
contract which has KPIs within it. We have probably over a thousand stores that
operate Woosh. It simply doesn't really cause problems etc. and clearly their
obligation is not to cause disturbance and nuisance etc. So we would operate to
the extent we do in that way. The reason why it's a little bit vague is the
stores not due to open. I'm subject to getting all the consents in place until
the back end of the year probably end of August being in September and therefore
some of those things are still slightly moveable.
But should we do wish from here, then it would operate as it does
from any of our other stores, which tends to be without difficulty.
Can I add as well?
If, I mean, it doesn't cause any issues that we've got in our current stores.
We intend to work really closely with the community,
and I would welcome to have like Jason's email.
So if there are any issues, they can come and talk to us directly
and then we can adapt, change whatever is needed in the local community.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:30:44
Thank you. So I have a few questions. So you've mentioned in certain situations you would have
a risk assessment regarding the need for security guards. So I just wondered what sort of evidence
would be needed, what would trigger the need of security guards? Can you give us any examples of
Public Speaker - 0:30:57
that please? Yeah sure, so that assessment takes place for every store at least every eight weeks.
So we just do that as a matter of course.
So there are a number of different things that we will take into account.
Demographics, crime stats for the area.
Where a store is trading, you can obviously get better data about the store.
So we will look at something called shrinkage, which is basically theft and stock loss.
We will look at any incidents around the store.
We will look at feedback from statutory authorities, particularly the police.
Again, one of the things we do through the hub, et cetera, is we will sometimes have
something called area guarding.
So we might have employed around an area within the area manager's team, extra security guards
who will also give feedback on the area.
So it's a fairly sophisticated system that's designed to both look at the area generally,
look at what's happening in the store, but also can be updated in real time.
So to give you an example, say you had two incidents in one week, that would also be
trapped by the hub.
And what we would probably look to do would be to use some form of the area guarding to
be put into the store on a temporary basis whilst we analyse what the impact and effect
of that is.
Is it needed on this day, at this time?
Has that had an impact?
Should we continue to do it?
So it's very much part of the dynamic thing that we do.
Okay.
Thank you.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:32:24
And with regards to if there were if there was this service with the motorbike riders
And so the partnership you have with the company that provide the riders are these riders sort of checked
They can legally work and what times up till will they be possibly collecting delivering?
So
Public Speaker - 0:32:40
Definitely as part of the contract that we have with people it requires them to make sure that people are lawfully able to work
And this is clearly something that a lot of companies do and therefore we're well used
to making sure that all those appropriate cheques are in place.
In terms of the time that it will operate up to, it would never operate outside of the
store hours within this format.
I would imagine it's very difficult for me to say at the moment because it hasn't even
been decided that it will operate within this store.
And it will partly be predicated on the local area.
So if people simply aren't wanting things,
it's not going to be there.
I would imagine where the store is and its locality.
It's intended to serve the local community or people working
there.
So I'd imagine there's probably going
to be an awful lot of just daily footfall as opposed
to using the whoosh.
But it could potentially operate if we
choose to do it there within whatever the licence hours are.
So theoretically, you could have motorbikes collecting
and delivering fluid up to 11 PM.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:33:42
Just to be correct, from how your other stores work?
Correct.
Okay, thank you.
Public Speaker - 0:33:46
Unlikely, but theoretically.
Thank you.
And one last question from me.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:33:51
Regarding the bin, you said you were going to provide a bin, so whose responsibility
is it to deal with that bin?
Is that a Tesco's?
Public Speaker - 0:33:59
So again, subject to getting planning, we always try and put a bin out front.
It would be our responsibility.
So we're not imposing any responsibility on any third party, but where we can, we like
to try and have a little bit at the front.
And then obviously that will be part of our routine
in terms of cleaning and litter disposal, et cetera.
And again, I should probably say in terms of litter disposal
to give you an idea again of how well
we thought this through.
Whenever we have a delivery,
what we also do is we load that delivery vehicle up
with all the refuse and all the waste
so that there aren't separate collections
from third parties and other vehicles
that will then go straight to a waste refuse centre, et cetera
So again, we try and plan it that way.
Okay, thank you. Do you have a question?
I do have a question.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:34:46
Cllr Barbara Cohen - 0:34:48
I'm not familiar with Bush, so do excuse my ignorance.
Is there a minimum charge that the customers can order from you?
And secondly, how many motorbikes
would you allow outside your shop as a maximum?
Public Speaker - 0:35:02
So there is a minimum charge of £15 for the order,
for obviously, et cetera.
That's pretty much in line with what I think is slightly under the average shop from these stores anyway.
Hardeesha has just checked in terms of the water etc.
So to the extent there were any motorised vehicles that were either motorised bicycles or motorbike scooters, they're all electric.
They don't have anything that's petrol operated again for obvious reasons.
But how many would you allow?
Cllr Barbara Cohen - 0:35:35
Public Speaker - 0:35:36
And again on average to give you an idea of the scale across the whole of the Tesco Express
format the wash orders from store is on average 10 per day so it's not as if this is a huge
enterprise operation and it's part of that convenience operation so I'd imagine there
would probably only be one or two drivers or people that we use via the third party
company.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:36:03
I am now going to ask our objectors if they have any questions for you.
Do you have anything you would like to say?
Public Speaker - 0:36:12
Thank you, Chair. I don't have questions, but I would like to outline a couple of things.
Questions?
Not at this time.
Do you have any questions?
set? My question would be you start at six o 'clock in the morning till 12 o 'clock at
night where are your staff going to park as we have a tremendous parking problem
around your proposed store? I think what we're intending is six to eleven but in terms of
most of the staff that we will employ will be locals is the intent so a lot of
them will actually hopefully be walking etc in terms of everything else
store opens, we will identify where they can legitimately park
and we will instruct them to do so.
So that's what we do with most of the stores.
But within village type areas, we try and encourage recruitment
from the local area.
And to a large proportion of the people I would imagine will
either walk or cycle and certainly won't be driving there.
But those that do need to drive, we will identify where they can
legitimately park.
And then that's where they will be instructed to do so.
I understand what you're saying.
Without disrespect, the people living in Chicle
are not the type of people that are going to work in your store.
So they will be coming from some distance away.
There is no transport and they're going to have to park.
And I'm very concerned about the parking.
I understand what you're saying, but again,
as I said at the outset, in terms of some of the transport issues and things,
they're probably more really part of the planning.
Certainly we intend to make a fresh planning application,
so if you have strong feelings to that,
I'm sure you will make comments against the planning
application, but that's probably a more appropriate forum.
Sorry, I'm not trying to avoid it.
I'm trying to give you the best answer that I can in terms of,
I don't think I'm waffling, but if you want to say that,
that's fair enough.
Thank you.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:38:20
so do you have any other questions questions to the applicant right so now it's your turn to
Public Speaker - 0:38:26
present your objections please thank you chair thank you members um so i've been the parish
clerk and proper officer since mid -january 2026 prior to this i've spent 30 and a half years as
a senior police officer working across two constabberies um just to touch upon a couple
of things we know through licencing applications which I'm experienced of sitting through and
being part of historically. Those responses are generally centralised and not localised
responses. In relation to Chigwell specifically, the location is a village, it's known as Chigwell
Village and Chigwell Parish Council provides and manages an overseas station green directly
opposite. We're responsible for obviously rubbish collection, maintaining the
location and keeping it to a good standard. We have very good relationships
with all properties and businesses in the local area and most notably there
are already two convenience stores which is Morrison's and Mace, both of which
have 2100 and 1200 hours respectively licencing conditions and in
In my understanding, there are no issues associated with each of the premises.
Obviously under a Class E use, there is planning restrictions which allow the premises to only
be open up to 10pm.
In my experience, which I draw upon my experience, I would always expect licensees to want to
work collectively with statutory agencies.
and already where an appeal has gone through, the planning inspector has explained these
restrictions. Already we're pushing against restrictions that have been put in place and
we've heard several reassurances, or assurances you may call them today, from my colleagues
across the floor here. Chigwell is a village and I'd just like to touch upon public nuisance.
It's station green, it's a play area and open space predominantly used by children and young
families.
Where we collect litter it's normally take away cartons, bits and pieces like that, but
my concern is we will start to see bottles, cans, potentially broken glass where children
play.
We operate Monday to Friday, so during late hours there is always an opportunity that
someone walking their dog or children could get injured as a result.
These are all ifs and buts I accept.
In relation to public nuisance, which is a really important point which one of the members
touched upon, deliveries, are we going to start to see these twist -and -go mopeds turning
up at all different times of the day and late at night?
The gentleman next to me has explained that, or I think has alluded to, Chigwa is a very
affluent area, so the presumption is most people who work or are potentially retired
will enjoy a good night's sleep, hence other premises where the licences adhere strictly
within their terms and conditions of finishing at a reasonable time where people would have
a good sleep. We recognise there will be opportunities that may come, but I think parking is an issue
which has already been highlighted. In terms of public nuisance, antisocial behaviour comes
in three formats. One is noise environmental, which we will see potentially an increase
of. The other is obviously antisocial behaviour and the other is driving. Are we going to
see more vehicles, more people coming into the area.
Crime and disorder, we are regularly contacted whether we've got CCTV or not in relation
to ongoing crimes and antisocial behaviour, and all of those predominantly are late in
the evening and associate in the area of Chigwell, the tube station, which we, if I was to look
at that data, I'd probably suggest there may be a bit of a hotspot there, which is obviously,
again, directly opposite.
In terms of protection of children and harm, I've just touched upon the play area again.
It may have an impact is what I'd like to say.
And obviously the local context for us.
So I'm not a local resident, but Chigua Parish Council is the only statutory agency, if you
like, which has a footprint in that community of Chigua village.
So we see, feel and hear every day local concerns from residents about things that we have no
control of, but we obviously escalate them.
And my concern is,
and I know there's not been enough time to get some of those
through.
I personally have received over 30 separate objections from
local residents directed to me,
but obviously I have asked them to put them forward in time
and whether they have or not is obviously, you know,
down to them.
So, so my, my sort of closing part is really the council on
behalf of Tugewell parish council,
So the objection to Tesco being there isn't an issue.
It's just around the closing time really
that I think is going in terms of the alcohol.
We recognise the other premises have a cut off
and I think Tesco's here are just pushing that
beyond what would be reasonable in a village.
Big organisation often seen in towns and cities nationally.
And just please don't lose context of this being a village
and the sentiment of local feeling and the impact that it may have and I'll stress it may have.
That's it, thank you. Thank you very much. Do you have anything else to add? Would you like to know?
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:43:55
Thank you. So we now can ask questions to the objectors. Do you have any questions from the
panel, from the committee for the objectors at all? No? No? Me neither. Yes. I just wanted to
Peter Jones - 0:44:10
To add to that, obviously the parish clerk did reference the hours for Mace and Morrison's.
I just wanted to confirm that in terms of licencing, Mace have a licence that permits
sales from as early as 7am to as late as midnight and Morrison's daily from as early as 6am
to 11pm.
Obviously, if they choose not to use them, then that's up to them and obviously I'm not
aware of any planning condition.
And then adversely, the public house, King William IV, they have a terminal out of 1am
for both on and off sales. Thank you for that information. So we have no questions
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:44:45
here for the objectives. Can I just ask one more question?
Cllr Barbara Cohen - 0:44:57
Regarding what we just said, yes. Do Maesil Morrisons have motorbikes outside their shops
Peter Jones - 0:45:02
for deliveries? I wouldn't be able to comment. I'm not aware of that. It's not a conditional
requirement of their licence but there's nothing to stop them from doing so.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:45:12
Okay, so the applicant now asks the objectors any questions they wish to ask. Would you
like to have any questions?
Public Speaker - 0:45:17
Again, I think in line with what my friend over there said, I don't really have any questions.
I've probably got a couple of points, but I can deal with those and sum it up if that's
...
Okay, this is just if you have any questions.
Yeah, no, we might have a difference of opinion. I don't really want to frame that as a question.
Okay.
Thank you.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:45:38
So we can now, unless there's anything else from the licencing
department, no? We can now sum up so as the objectives would you like to sum up
any of your statement?
Public Speaker - 0:45:55
Thank you chair. I think just in summary Chigwell Parish Council's position is
that they don't object to obviously Tesco's being there and obviously they
are coming it's just around really the licence time that whilst we do have
other premises locally and a public house we are in terms of the feeling
from the parish council is really that it could you know finish in line with
the others who do it consensually albeit the licences there and that is because
we would expect to work you know it to be in harmony the any any premises that
comes into a locality such as a village should be in harmony with the residents
and their wishes rather pushing against that.
So that would be my final point.
That's probably the council's sort of biggest position here.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
So it's your chance now to sum up as the applicant,
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:46:43
if you would like to do.
Public Speaker - 0:46:45
I'm very grateful.
I've just made those couple of points
at the outset of summing up as well,
which is my friend very carefully sort of said
and conceded a lot of this is if buts and maybes
in terms of some of those fears.
And clearly there was a concession that Mace
and also the other premises, Morrisons, don't cause any problems. So clearly in terms of
their trades, there's some of the wider comments about litter, about bringing people in. If
that was going to be a problem, the chances are most likely it would have happened already
in terms of that.
In terms of summing up, we think this is very well thought out application. I don't think
there's any disagreement that Tesco is an excellent operator. You've heard about some
of the systems, et cetera.
None of the statutory authorities
have any objection whatsoever.
In terms of the application for slightly longer hours,
let alone for slightly truncated hours,
you are entitled, we would encourage you
to place great weight on that.
Also in licencing terms, what we are asking for
seems to be entirely consistent
with the two existing convenience stores within the locality.
Clearly there is another process to go through,
which is we have to go through the planning,
which I suspect some of the points which are being raised
are better directed to that forum,
And then clearly, even if you granted the licence as sought in terms of the hours, it
may very well be that we don't necessarily trade those just as other people do, but that
is what we'd like to seek today.
We think on the basis of the evidence before you, granting it would be consistent with
promoting all four licencing objectives.
And thank you very much for your time.
Thank you very much.
So you're welcome to stay here.
Cllr Louise Mead - 0:48:18
The committee will be retiring and we will come back with a decision when we're ready,
so feel free to stay or if you leave we'll be writing to you anyway.

5 Application for Premises Licence - Tesco Express, Chigwell

Cllr Louise Mead - 0:48:35
Four licencing objectives and the relevant parts of the council's licencing policy
and government guidance. During our deliberations in private session no issue of law or policy arose
and so the subcommittee was not required to call on officers for advice. None was
provided as it was not sought. The licence is granted sale of alcohol for
consumption of the premises Monday to Sunday 6 a .m. to 11 p .m. The application
specifies opening hours to the public as Monday to Sunday 6 a .m. to 11 p .m.
that's 2300 pm, subject to the conditions as submitted by the applicant within their application.
We are also attaching the mandatory conditions contained in sections 19 to 21 of the Licencing
Act 2003. The applicant and the persons who have made representations are reminded of their right
of appeal to the Magistrates Court within 21 days of the date of the written notification
of this decision.
I'd like to thank everybody for coming
and we have no exclusion of public or press
so I declare this meeting closed at almost 1pm.
Thank you for coming and safe journey home.
you
Cllr Barbara Cohen
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge ward
Loughton Residents Association
View profile Cllr Barbara Cohen
Cllr Tippy Cornish
District councillor for Theydon Bois with Passingford ward
Liberal Democrats
View profile Cllr Tippy Cornish
Peter Jones
Licensing Compliance Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Peter Jones
Cllr Louise Mead
District councillor for Loughton Fairmead ward
Loughton Residents Association
View profile Cllr Louise Mead
Cllr Lisa Morgan
District councillor for Grange Hill ward
Epping Forest Independents Group
View profile Cllr Lisa Morgan
Serena Shani
Democratic Services Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Serena Shani