New convenience store to open at Hartlepool town centre

By Nic Marko, Local Democracy Reporter

A licence has been granted for a new “modern and professional general convenience store” to open at a vacant town centre building.

An application had been lodged with Hartlepool Borough Council for the property at 24-26 Avenue Road which will see “a brand new business venture” open.

Submitted by Kulasingam Chandramohan, the proposal stated his ambition is for the site “to be refurbished, with a big investment, to become a new, modern and professional general convenience store”.

The initial licensing application sought to allow the proposed site to sell alcohol between 6am and 2am each day, in line with their opening hours.

This led to objections from police and council public health and environmental protection teams, including concerns the licence would exacerbate “alcohol related issues already suffered in Hartlepool”.

However a meeting of the council’s licensing sub-committee heard following talks between the applicant and the organisations, the hours for alcohol sales had been revised to between 8am and 11.30pm.

This, combined with conditions which had been agreed between the police and the applicant, including preventing single and high strength alcohol can sales, meant those objections were dropped.

However, concerns remained from representatives from two nearby businesses, Bar One and the Showroom Bar, and one resident, around potential antisocial behaviour due to the alcohol sales and people attempting to take drinks into nearby bars.

This meant the application still had to go before the sub-committee, where councillors ultimately decided to approve the revised licence.

Frank Fender, representing the applicant, said Mr Chandramohan was a “very experienced operator of licensed shops” and the store will have a Challenge 25 policy, CCTV coverage, an incident book and staff training schemes.

He continued: “During the hours that the premises are open but not selling alcohol, the alcohol will be covered.

“That potential for antisocial behaviour is speculative, there is no evidence to say that is going to happen and in fact, with the agreed conditions with the police, arguably the potential is lessened considerably.”

He added although the former bar/restaurant and takeaway is in a “poor state at the moment”, the applicant is aiming to open the store “within four to six weeks”.

The licence also secures permission to serve “late night refreshment”, which includes hot food and drink, between the hours of 11pm and 2am, to allow the sale of coffees.

(Local Democracy Reporting Service)