FAST-GROWING discounter Aldi has won an appeal against a decision by Dundee Licensing Board to refuse it a provisional alcohol licence for a proposed store in the city’s Myrekirk Road.
And the decision by Sheriff Kevin Veal appears to call into question the city licensing board’s policy which designates almost the entire city as overprovided.
The policy dates from 2014 and was launched after a report from Dundee City Alcohol and Drug Partnership had argued that all of the city should be considered over-provided with premises licensed for sale of alcohol.
The board conducted a consultation process and eventually decided the entire city apart from the waterfront area was overprovided.
But Sheriff Veal said that process, carried out under rules that predated amendments made in the recent Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2016, had been flawed.
He reversed the decision to refuse Aldi’s application and ordered the board to grant the licence.
Sheriff Veal had previously upheld an appeal by BP Oil against a refusal of a licence on grounds of overprovision but that had been on grounds that the board’s statement of reason was flawed.
The Aldi appeal decision, however, appears to suggest the over-provision policy itself is flawed.
