Complete Licensing played a key role in a recent hearing which underlined the depth of our professional knowledge and left two west London bar operators very happy.
The Scrummery is the closest bar to Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium and, naturally, a popular watering hole on match days at the home of English rugby. It is run by Bijal and Rupesh Soni, who leased it from the freeholders Karen and Colin Griffiths in 2021.
Residents complained of disruption on rugby days, with claims of excessive noise and drunken behaviour leading to a review of the Scrummery’s licence under the 2003 Licensing Act. The bar freeholders –actually held the premises licence – so the Sonis called in Complete Licensing to help with their case.
Our advice was to ensure all licensing requirements were being met, but also to make a separate, new licence application of their own with tighter restrictions. The review application and the new premises licence application were heard on the same day before the London Borough of Richmond’s licensing sub-committee. The Soni family argued that they had introduced a number of significant measures that had reduced the impact of match-day pub openings on the local community, but there was inevitably going to be disturbance to local residents who choose to live within a few hundred metres of an 82,000-capacity, internationally important sports stadium.
Complete Licensing’s independent experts spent two match days observing and expecting The Scrummery and its operation. David Nevitt, formerly senior independent environmental health officer with Westminster Council, and Jim Sollars, highly experienced former Metropolitan Police Westminster licensing officer, both gave evidence to the hearing, confirming that new procedures kept customers under good control and no public nuisance was witnessed.
The Sonis submitted that the owners’ objection did not preclude a new licence being granted to them as the actual operators, even if they were involved in a commercial property dispute. The owners are seeking to terminate the lease through a civil court action, though the Sonis are contesting the issue.
Barrister Gary Grant told the hearing that if a new premises licence was granted to the Sonis, the owners’ licence could become a “shadow licence”. The Soni family would then operate under their own premises licence, with agreed restrictions on opening hours, sound-proofing and regular meetings with local residents, and would be legally accountable for promoting the licensing objectives.
“We used Complete Licensing to help with our application and couldn’t have asked for better support.
James was excellent. He’s clearly very experienced and knows licensing inside out. What we appreciated most was that he wasn’t afraid to challenge us or tell us when he thought we were wrong. It wasn’t always what we wanted to hear, but it was usually what we needed to hear, and it undoubtedly helped us make better decisions.
The wider team was equally impressive. They have access to some very knowledgeable licensing specialists and barristers, and their experience dealing with local authorities was clear throughout the process. Having that level of expertise behind us gave us a lot of confidence.”
Mrs Bijal Soni