Post office in Castletown area of Sunderland granted licence to sell alcohol, despite concerns

A post office and convenience store has been granted a licence to sell alcohol despite concerns from councillors over the move.

It comes after a licensing application was submitted to Sunderland City Council in January for 35 Ethel Terrace, which is home to Castletown Post Office.

Applicant Sandeep Singh was looking to secure a premises licence to sell alcohol Monday to Sunday from 8.30am until 10pm as part of plans to run a convenience store from the site.

However, objections were raised to the move by all three councillors for the Castle ward, where the shop is located, along with several residents.

This led to the application going before the city council’s licensing sub-committee on Monday, March 11, for a decision to be made.

After hearing concerns from objectors and the case from the applicant, councillors on the committee ultimately decided to grant the licensing application.

They added several additional conditions to the licence however, including additional signage being in place to discourage loitering and noise, and to restrict the number of unsupervised children allowed in at any one time to two.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Singh said he would ensure the site complies with all four licensing objectives, which are public safety, protection of children from harm and the prevention of crime and disorder and public nuisance.

He added: “I will give my full concentration on the post office premises. I will follow the objectives, I’m fully qualified.

“I give you my word, I will give my 100 per cent in this shop.”

He also said a trained personal licence holder will be on-site at all times, and a Challenge 25 policy and CCTV will be in place.

The committee heard Northumbria Police and other responsible authorities had no issues with the proposals, and therefore did not submit any objections or attend the meeting.

However, the three Castle ward councillors, Allison Chisnall, Stephen Foster and Denny Wilson, all objected to the plans, along with a nearby convenience store owner and a resident.

Cllr Chisnall said: “There’s going to be a lot of elderly people using the post office who are going to have to walk through the main shop, people inside could be watching them to see what they’re doing, carrying their cash.

“It scares me that if we grant this licence it will increase alcohol sales and it will increase more people’s health [issues] and increase people being admitted to hospital.”

She added the store could attract people buying alcohol who are “barred” from other shops nearby which would “increase the crime figures”.

Cllr Wilson said that he had been “asked by residents on their behalf to object to a post office selling alcohol”, while also raising concerns around the levels of “unrecorded crime” in the area.

He continued: “We think that selling alcohol, to a very small post office, is just asking for trouble and undermines all of these licensing objectives.”

Cllr Foster said there should have been more conversations with councillors before the proposals came forward, adding some of the claims about issues such as the lack of crime in the area “are not as we see it”.

The owner of a nearby convenience store also voiced his objection to the application at the meeting, stating they already face issues with crime and antisocial behaviour “most weeks, probably a couple of times a week” and get “threatened not to report them”.

Meanwhile, a Castletown resident, speaking at the meeting, claimed licensing another store in the area to sell alcohol, when several are already able to do so, would lead to “cheap alcohol” and young people “generating antisocial behaviour”.

Council legal officers stressed in making their decision the committee “cannot speculate on what might happen” and their verdict has to be based on evidence around what “will or has happened”.

An application for the premises was previously submitted in August 2023 for the longer hours of 8.30am until 11pm.

Objections were submitted to that application from Northumbria Police and the council’s trading standards team, which led to the applicant withdrawing their application in September.

On 11th January 2024 a meeting was then held with the applicant and their agent via Microsoft Teams to discuss a further proposal for an application for the premises with representatives from various council departments and Northumbria Police.

Officers discussed the previous concerns that were raised on the initial application and sought reassurances from the applicant that the premises would not encounter any issues should a licence be granted.

Those talks led to the applicant agreeing to a number of conditions to be included in the operating schedule for the store, along with the 8.30am until 10pm proposed hours for alcohol sales, and the latest application was submitted later that month.