WESTBURY Town Council will be writing a letter to the Swindon Magistrates’ Court to state their continued objection to the change in alcohol licensing hours at Aldi supermarket on Warminster Road, and are asking for a review to be made.
Under a previous licence, the supermarket was licensed to sell alcohol between the hours of 8.00am and 11.00pm, but asked to extend the hours to 6.00am – midnight.
This was opposed by the town council, and Aldi offered to change the proposed hours to 7am-11pm. Councillors opted to stick by their initial comments and a subsequent hearing took place on the 20th October, where the licencing subcommittee of Wiltshire Council voted to allow Aldi to extend their licencing hours from 6am-12am.
However, at a full meeting of Westbury Town Council on 1st November, councillors were disappointed that their concern had not been taken into account and felt that increasing the licensing hours was a way for the supermarket to extend its trading times. Cllr Sheila Kimmins said, “Aldi have been trying for some considerable time to get their opening hours changed.
“This is my appeal to you [the town council] that we write to the Swindon magistrates objecting to this application and asking for it to be reviewed. Our reasons would be that this premises is in a residential area and would disturb nearby residents by the noise of an articulated lorry backing in late at night, the noise of the metal shutters of the lorry being opened, the noise of the forklift truck that would unload the goods and also the lighting that will wake people.
“We would request that the Aldi’s licensing is the same as everybody’s else in this town and that is 7am-11pm, Monday-Saturday inclusive and 10am-4pm on Sunday. I will quote what Wiltshire Council have said, ‘it is to safeguard the amenities of the area of which this development is made.’
Cllr Mike Kettlety, who represented the town council at the licencing subcommittee with Aldi said, “I want to report to you the rather negative attitude of the committee reviewing this. All our points we raised previously about prevention of crime and disorder and public nuisance were dismissed by the committee.
“On the point of crime and disorder, I was asked to produce complaints or any examples of crime and disorder as a result of this – I made the point that I could not do that, it’s the job of the police to do that. Their response was ‘the police aren’t here’. It was really disheartening to see a public committee who really weren’t prepared to engage with this council and look at the problems.
“I think it’s important we maintain our stance here. Our valid complaints should be put again to the committee and hopefully they’ll listen.”
Cllr Mike Sutton added, “I remember when this application came up a year ago now. Aldi have been trying for a long time to keep increasing their hours and we’ve been knocking them back.
“But it seems to me that this is a licensing application, so they are trying to increase their licensing hours before increasing their opening hours, which is I think a foot in the door to then say ‘well we’ve got a licence to sell alcohol, you may as well let us change our hours.’
Cllr Kimmins added, “If the nightclub on the trading estate (Venom) has to finish at 11, why should Aldi be any different to a night club?”
