Pre-mixed gin and tonics and alcoholic brewed drinks will go on sale from a kiosk at Brighton Station.
The Curry Leaf Café kiosk has been given permission to sell ready-to-drink G&Ts and Crooked Beverage Co branded drinks after a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel hearing.
Concerns had been raised about the licence application because Brighton Station is on the edge of the the council’s “cumulative impact zone” and within its “special stress area”.
They are intended to restrict the number of licensed premises in the centre of Brighton and Hove.
Originally Curry Leaf Café owner Euan Sey and operations director Stewart Cummings told the panel that they wanted to sell alcohol without food. They were told that they couldn’t.
Green councillor Lizzie Deane, who represents St Peter’s and North Laine ward, called for substantial food to be on sale with alcoholic drinks.
She said: “At the moment it can be just a samosa. I would like to see this promoted to a substantial meal starting at £7.95. That is what I would class as substantial food.”
Councillor Deane was particularly concerned about being drinking strong alcohol on an empty stomach.
Currently anyone who wants to buy a beer from the kiosk has to spent at least £1.50 on food.
The three-member panel agreed that customers would be required to have a “meaningful snack” along with any alcoholic drink.
The ruling sent to Mr Sey and Mr Cumming said: “To maintain that objective, we believe that the minimum price should be reviewed annually and increased in line with the Consumer Prices Index.”
The Curry Leaf Café, which also runs restaurants in Kemp Town and The Lanes, already sells craft beers at the station kiosk.
The company is currently in talks with rail company Govia to open a second kiosk at Bognor Station.
Good luck in being able to buy food for £1.50, or is a Mars Bar considered a food item.
Oh great, more drunk idiots on the trains causing havoc and mayhem.
How many of us have caught a late train from Brighton to London, and witnessed all the drunk chavs harassing women?
“Green councillor Lizzie Deane, who represents St Peter’s and North Laine ward, called for substantial food to be on sale with alcoholic drinks.”
Oh Green Party; just when we think you can’t get any more ridiculous, you surpass yourselves…
How would this cause an increase? The stall already has a licence and sells beer. They can now sell g&ts as well. All of these products are already on sale next door at m&s.
I have as much respect for the green party as I have for a bottle of cheap, stinking cooking oil from Lidl.
I have a number of female friends who have been accosted and harassed by drunks on the Brighton-to-London trains at night.
What could possibly go wrong by selling alcohol at brighton train station?
Alcohol has always been on sale at Brighton Station. Marks and Spencer sell a huge range of beers, wines and cocktails. There was even a pub, although I’m told it closed recently due to lack of interest. The opportunity to buy one can of G&T without queueing at M&S isn’t going to affect anyone’s behaviour on the train. Well, it might make me less impatient I suppose.
The Curry Leaf had an alcohol licence already which enabled them to sell beers. I objected outright to the sale of gin and tonics, and asked that this be refused. However, IF the panel were minded to grant (which, sadly, they did) I asked that they stipulate that alcohol should not be sold on its own, but only with ‘substantial food’ – this is a technical term within government guidance on licensing. There has never been any agreement on what ‘substantial food’ consists of, so I asked that, as a minimum, it should be with a main meal, which on the current menu starts at £7.95. I agree with you entirely that a single samosa counts as ‘substantial’, it’s totally ridiculous. I am disappointed that the panel agreed to the sale of gin at all, and totally exasperated that they kept the minimum spend at £1.50. Disappointed also that the Transport Police did not see fit to say anything.