Bid for 24-hour booze sales a cause for alarm bells among council officers

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

An application to sell alcohol 24-hours-a-day at a Waitrose convenience shop have concerned council officers, who said the store could become a magnet for late-night revellers.

Wandsworth council’s noise team claimed local residents could be disturbed if Little Waitrose, at the Shell petrol station in Queenstown Road, Battersea, is allowed to extend the hours it sells alcohol.

Shell UK has applied to sell booze 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at the shop, which would allow customers to buy alcohol in store and delivery drivers to collect orders for residents. The venue can currently sell booze from 6am until midnight on Sundays to Thursdays, and up to 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.

The council’s noise team objected to the plans, after raising concerns neighbours would be disturbed if the shop became one of the few in the borough able to sell alcohol around the clock.

A letter from Robert Newby-Walker, senior environmental services officer, said: “Shops, stores and supermarkets selling alcohol can act as a magnet for people leaving other licensed premises to ‘top up’ their consumption.

“The particular client group seeking to buy alcohol for consumption off the premises in the early hours of the morning, therefore, differs from those seeking to buy other goods.

“Noise from revellers in the street, or noises associated with comings and goings, where this can include third-party delivery riders as well as direct customers, cannot be controlled by the applicant nor by any other effective means other than by limiting the general hours in which premises can operate.”

But barrister Sarah Clover, representing the applicant, said the plans aimed to make life more convenient for passing drivers, at the council’s licensing hearing on February 26.

Ms Clover said: “This is all about insulating from loss of trade because people cannot get what they expect to get. People get confused when they are allowed to go in to buy some crisps and a packet of tea and some nappies or something, but they can’t pick up a bottle of wine which is there… so they boycott that place and go somewhere else.”

She added the shop had no record of complaints, despite already having permission to stay open and sell non-alcoholic items 24 hours a day. The council’s licensing committee will publish its decision in the coming days.

Pictured top: The Little Waitrose at Shell station, Battersea ()Picture: google Street View)