Two Dundee retailers have been refused licenses to sell alcohol due to concerns of “overprovision” in the city.
Food Plus on Lochee High Street and Nisa Local on Meadowside were both told by the council’s licensing board that their applications were refused.
The board’s decisions are the first overprovision refusals since the local authority’s policy on this was ruled unlawful by a sheriff in March.
The convener of the licensing board, SNP councillor for Strathmartine, Stewart Hunter, explained that without this policy, the board must take responsibility for the decisions.
The Meadowside store, which opened in April 2019, has had several applications knocked back.
This time, as with previous applications, overprovision was also cited and supported by NHS Tayside as a reason against granting the licences.
The solicitor representing the two businesses, Janet Hood, accepted the decision but is waiting for full clarification from the board about the decisions.
‘Evidence for refusal’
Asked to explain the board’s decision after the meeting, Mr Hunter said: “Overprovision is a valid reason for refusal.
“However, with no overprovision policy the onus falls on the board – if they are minded to move refusal – to show overprovision.”
Explaining the evidence used, he added: “Officers provided us with maps and data showing how many premises in the area for us to decide so that we could form an opinion on whether or not there was overprovision.”
‘Statement of reasons anticipated’
Following the meeting Ms Hood was asked to comment further.
She said: “I’m not prepared to make any statement until I’ve had an opportunity to see the statement of reasons which will give an indication of what the board had in mind when they refused the applications.”
Following the scrapping of the overprovision policy in March by Sheriff Lindsey Foulis, Aldi and Home Bargains were granted licences to sell alcohol in two new stores in Dundee.
Minimum pricing of alcohol at 50p per unit sold became law across Scotland in May 2018.
As any retailer cannot undercut this it means, according to the sheriff ruling, that there is already sufficient provision in the law to stop lower-priced unit sales.
It meant there was nothing the board could do legally to prevent the two major retailers landing off sales licenses.
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