At today’s hearing of Sedgemoor District Council Licensing Panel an application from the Police and Trading Standards for the revocation of the Premises Licence for the International Food Centre on Bridgwater’s troubled Binford Place was agreed. Chairman of the Panel Cllr Jeff Savage said the Licence would be withdrawn at 1800 on 25th October pending any appeal by the holder Mr Mehmet Yildirim.

The Police, Trading Standards, the Town Council, Ward Councillors and residents all spoke at the hearing which lasted almost 4 hours and heard evidence of illegal tobacco sales, failure to comply with conditions previously set and links to anti-social behaviour in the Town Centre and specifically on Binford Place which the Police and Town Council identified as their number one trouble spot.

‘Too Little Too Late’

Summing up, Cllr Savage pointed to the ‘…failure to comply with licence conditions,significant evidence of repeated breaches, little evidence of Mr Yildirim discouraging the purchase of alcohol by street drinkers, and considerable evidence of Mr Yildirim not being in attendance during the hours of the licence’. Cllr Savage said the concern was that issues were coming before them repeatedly and were not being addressed. He felt that any offer at this stage to modify the conditions would be ‘too little too late’ and that the Panel had ‘...no confidence in his ability to address the issues‘. Cllr Savage concluded “Criminality had taken place and revocation of the Licence was the only appropriate course of action”.