Pizza shop that delivers booze gets go-ahead in Wolverhampton despite concern
A new pizza takeaway in Wolverhampton city centre that also delivers alcohol and cigarettes has been given the go-ahead – despite major concerns from police.
Council bosses granted licensing approval for Snappy Tomato Pizza, in Worcester Street, subject to a series of conditions, on Tuesday. The application was made by Mr Baljit Singh Batiya, sole proprietor of West Bromwich-based Kimran Foods.
However, the licensing sub-committee earlier heard from Sergeant Steph Reynolds, who said West Midlands Police had “no confidence” in Mr Batiya, citing documented police reports that he had a previous history of selling alcohol to people who were intoxicated during six years of working as a designated premises supervisor.
Council solicitor David Abel told the committee the concerns raised related to Mr Batiya’s previous business, which he had since sold.
The premises licence was granted subject to a number of conditions that Mr Batiya had agreed to, which Mr Abel then outlined to the committee.
“The licence will be granted for a six-month trial period and no off-sales of alcohol will be provided to customers from the premises itself. Alcohol will only be offered as part of a delivery service and only permitted as an addition to food orders,” he said.
“Sales of alcohol are not to include any super-strength lagers, beers or ciders where strength exceeds 6.5% ABV and there is to be no single sales of alcohol in cans.”
The council has also said that all customer-facing staff must receive proper training from an accredited licensing firm before they start working, and go through refresher training every six months.
Mr Abel said: “Training will also cover Challenge 25, personal safety, conflict management, recognising signs of drunkenness, how to refuse service, the premises duty of care, safe evacuation of the premises and the conditions in force under this licence. This training must be documented and produced to an officer of a responsible authority on request.
“Alcohol must be delivered to a residential or business address only and not delivered to a person in a public place – for example a car park, street corner, bus stop etc.”
He added: “Delivery staff must be over 18 years of age. Where a delivery driver has concerns further to child protection at any address to which alcohol has been delivered, these concerns must be made known to the premises licence holder with the minimum of delay, whereupon the premises licence holder must report the matter to Wolverhampton Council’s emergency duty team.
“There will be no collections of alcohol or tobacco from the premises. The premises must also install and operate a CCTV system covering all points of sales which will record continuously, with all recordings stored for a minimum of 31 days, and the recordings to be made immediately available to police or an officer from a responsible authority upon request.
“These conditions are being implemented with regard to furthering the licensing objectives of public safety and the prevention of children from harm.”
