Cllr. Jill Whitehead at the entrance to 123 Westmead Road
Cllr. Jill Whitehead says:
I have heard from Mr Richard Winch in the Council’s Licensing Dept. in regard to the proposed new Sainsbury Store on the site of Westmead House, which would be situated under the proposed care home.
The applicant has now amended the hours applied for to match those of the planning conditions as per the decision of the Planning Inspectorate last year. The opening hours are now 07:00 to 23:00 every day (as opposed to the originally proposed 24 hours per day). This compares with the following local stores:
- Tesco, Lower Road – licensed for sale of alcohol from 06:00 to 23:00 everyday
- Londis, 121 Westmead Road – Monday to Saturdays – licensed for sale of alcohol from 08:00 to 23:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 22:30
- BP, 322 – 332 Carshalton Road – licensed for sale of alcohol from 08:00 to 23:00 everyday
- Co-op, 44 High Street, Carshalton – Monday to Saturdays – licensed for sale of alcohol from 07:00 to 23:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 22:30
- Sainsbury’s, 52 – 56 High Street, Carshalton – licensed for sale of alcohol from 07:00 to 23:00 everyday
The plan indicates that the entire Sainsbury’s premises will be 336sq metres. Tesco Lower road is 294 sq metres and BP is 240sq metres. If residents wish a ward councillor to represent you, the hearing of the subcommittee is set to take place on Monday 10th Feb, 14:30 at the Civic Centre.
The licensing committee can only consider licensing matters (i.e. the sale of alcohol in this instance), and as the applicants have now changed their overall hours of operation to match other local outlets selling alcohol, this may be more difficult to challenge, unless we can prove demonstrable harm would be caused through this store selling alcohol at this site (e.g. anti-social behaviour).