Bid to sell alcohol in same building as alcohol support charity rejected

A bid to sell alcohol in a Finnieston building where a charity provides support to people with alcohol issues has been rejected.

Murray’s Initiative warned Glasgow’s licensing board that it would have to move if a planned convenience store was handed an alcohol licence.

The charity’s chief executive, Lesley Ross, told board members: “We specifically chose that building because there were no alcohol sales within the immediate vicinity.”

Murray’s Initiative, a support service for people affected by alcohol, drugs and trauma, operates from 14 North Claremont Street.

GHSL Ltd applied for a provisional premises licence for 9 Clifton Place, within the same building.

The board heard GHSL intended to invest between £300,000 and £350,000 to “create a modern, high-quality convenience store”, selling Co-op branded products, in a former Royal Bank of Scotland premises.

But several objections, including from Martin Rhodes MP and Iris Duane MSP, were received ahead of a hearing on Friday. At the meeting, Ms Ross said Murray’s Initiative, formerly Glasgow Council on Alcohol, has been in the building for over ten years.

“We are in Finnieston, there’s an awful lot of pubs, clubs, shops and whatever but the actual office itself was not surrounded,” she said. “If this licence is granted, we are going to have to move. That will be hugely costly, it will have a huge impact on the clients.”

She added: “I appreciate you need to stick to the law…but this is about lives, this is about people potentially dying. We know the alcohol deaths are the worst they’ve ever been…I don’t want another death, because one is too many.”

A representative for the city’s health and social care partnership, which commissions Murray’s Initiative, said: “The proximity of these premises proposing alcohol sales to an alcohol support service creates a clear public health concern.

“People attending alcohol support services may include individuals and young people who are actively trying to reduce alcohol consumption, maintain recovery or access support following alcohol-related harm.

“Creating a new alcohol outlet beside such a service risks undermining recovery, increasing exposure to alcohol use and creating an avoidable trigger for people already vulnerable to relapse or harm.”=

A representative for the applicant said the company “fully respects the important work undertaken” by the charity and did not “seek to minimise the concerns they have raised”.

However, they argued the concerns were “unlikely to materialise”. GHSL currently operates 11 licensed premises, without any complaints to Police Scotland or licensing standards officers, board members were told.

They heard alcohol would not be “the predominant feature” of the store and it would “not be apparent to persons walking past this store that alcohol is available for sale”.

“No evidence has been provided that the proximity of licensed premises creates that barrier to engagement or risk to service users,” the representative added.

Shamly Sud, director of GHSL, said: “We are very responsible retailers. We will not sell if there is a risk at all, for the safety of the customer and the safety of our staff.”

However, Margaret Morgan, the licensing board chair, said: “I don’t feel that you are fully understanding the stress and the confidence that’s involved in an alcoholic seeking rehabilitation.

“To have a premises in the same building could create a tremendous amount of stress for that person.”