New Coventry booze delivery service from house gets licence despite neighbour fears

[dutchman]

The online drinks shop will operate from a house in Earlsdon



A Coventry man has been granted a licence to set up a booze delivery service from a residential home despite angry objections from elderly neighbours. Maxwell Vardon, 26, will use a house on Melbourne Road, Earlsdon, as a base for his online business selling and delivering alcoholic drinks to local customers.

Mr Vardon, who is managing director of the company 'Mix Me Ltd', was given the green light by councillors at a hearing of Coventry City Council's Licensing Sub-Committee on Monday (July 11). It came after residents living on the road fiercely opposed the application saying would cause issues with noise, parking and anti-social behaviour.

A 74-year-old neighbour said the plan was "completely unacceptable" in an email to the council. "It will be far too noisy impacting residents, no parking and incite anti social behaviour," they added.

Another resident opposing on behalf of their 98-year-old grandmother said it would cause "immense issues," for the same reasons. "This will cause great distress to my grandma and other residents," they wrote.

But in his application, Mr Vardon stated how these problems could be avoided. He said: "As I will be the only employee of my business, I plan to be as quiet as possible especially during unsociable hours."

The premises won't be open to the public he said and there will be "promotion of drinking responsibly" with customers contacted if they are "sporadically ordering" in a day.

Mr Vardon also agreed to conditions including reducing his trading times from 24/7 to weekdays between 9am and 6pm. He agreed to only make the booze deliveries himself with trips limited to four or five per day.

No other workers will be allowed on site and no commercial deliveries will go to the house.

Ahead of the meeting, a council Licensing Officer recommended that the licence be granted. Rekha Masih noted that "the applicant has voluntarily agreed conditions which has significantly modified the application, namely reducing the hours of operation following discussions with Environmental Protection, Planning & Trading Standards".

[rebbonk]

This is obviously unacceptable. Any sane person would question as to how and why this licence has been granted. Brown envelopes?

[dutchman]

I imagine the nearby off-licences are less than happy about the decision either.