Adnams has been granted a licence for a new shop in Bishop’s Stortford, despite concerns of an “alcohol-fuelled crisis” for the town.
Members of East Herts Council’s licensing sub-committee told objectors it had to balance residents’ objections to the sale of beers, wines and spirits with the need to support the local economy.
The 150-year-old Suffolk brewery will be allowed to open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays for off-licence sales only in the former Tissimans gentleman’s outfitters in High Street.
The Southwold business originally asked for permission to sell alcohol on and off the premises from 9am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday, and from 9am to 5pm on Sundays, so customers could sample its range or attend tastings and lectures. It amended its application for its 13th retail outlet after residents objected, but for some opponents, the change was not enough.
Two residents, a man and a woman claiming to represent more than 60 parents, told the sub-committee that alcohol was at the root of anti-social behaviour suffered by High Street and Basbow Lane householders and their young families and that every new licence granted exacerbated the problem.
They felt they had been abandoned by the authorities and pointed the finger at Host “nightclub” in Market Square, playing the sub-committee a video of the drunken disturbance they typically endured at 2am on Friday night.
As well as concerns about noisy deliveries, road safety, parking, smoking staff and inconsiderately placed bins posing a fire risk, the man told councillors and Adnams that, as a Muslim, the application to sell alcohol on the premises would force him out of his adjacent home.
The man, an accident and emergency doctor, felt his religious beliefs were being trampled on and asked Adnams to reconsider its application.
In evidence to the sub-committee, Adnams said it took its social responsibilities seriously and was committed to forging operating agreements with the families living closest to its new shop.
That included scheduling deliveries to suit neighbours, sourcing smaller pallets to ease access and shifting bins to minimise disruption.
Its spokesman said: “We are not a business that does not care about the community we work in.”
The first Adnams store opened in 1987 and there are now 12 branches across East Anglia, selling alcohol, homewares and food. As well as its outlet in Saffron Walden, there are five in Suffolk – Southwold, Woodbridge, Aldeburgh, Bury St Edmunds and Hadleigh – five in Norfolk – Norwich (two), Holt, Harleston and Holkham – and one in Stamford, Lincolnshire.
The High Street building, latterly the home of bespoke tailor Alexandra Wood, has been a shop for more than four centuries. Parts of the premises date from about 1360, with more “modern” additions from around 1545.
Slaters was established in 1601 as a tailor, draper and undertaker. The earliest evidence of the name change to Tissimans was in the late 1800s.
Before it closed in February 2013, it was the oldest men’s clothing establishment in the world which once provided liveries to royal servants at Windsor Castle and Sandringham House.
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