NICE DAY FOR A WHITE WEDDING RECEPTION* – NO ALCOHOL ALLOWED Church’s latest scheme for cinema building
HAVE YOUR WEDDING RECEPTION HERE! – that’s the latest scheme from the Pentecostal church which owns the cinema building at 25 Church Road as they gear up to submit renewed plans to turn it into a church. (See separate story).
But the church don’t allow alcohol and have no premises licence for the building – which means anyone wanting to hold certain events there will have to apply to Bromley council for the relevant permission.
A sign on the doors of the building announces that the premises are available for “concerts, conventions, musical, entertainment, wedding receptions, meeting rooms, parties and many more. “State of the art facilities include…..an Internet cafe and a coffee bar.”
The church’s latest move comes five months after KICC announced they were WITHDRAWING a premises licence application which, if fully approved, would have seen the building open from 8am to 2am seven days per week.
A cinema campaigner who contacted Bromley council in the wake of the notice appearing has been told in a letter:
“Hiring out the premises is not itself something that requires a licence. “The person hiring the venue may require a licence depending on the nature of the event they are holding.”
The letter from Paul Lehane, head of food,safety and licensing, adds: “As no full ‘premises licence’ has been granted for the building it would fall to any hirer to apply for a TEN (temporary event notice) or apply for a short duration premises licence for an event.”
The scheme is the latest in a series of plans announced by the church – Kingsway International; Christian centre – over the past year.
IN FEBRUARY Bromley council’s plans sub committee number one amended officers’ suggested recommendations so that enforcement action would be held in abeyance for 30 days and the owners (KICC) urged to submit an application within that time – otherwise enforcement action would be taken.
WE’RE ONLY MAKING PLANS FOR NIGEL – XTC / “I’M STILL WAITING…..” – DIANA ROSS
ON MARCH 21st News From Crystal Palace reported: “Plans to use the former cinema at 25 Church Road for religious services on a ‘dual purpose’ basis are set to be submitted to Bromley council.
“The move by the Pentecostal church KICC (Kingsway International Christian Centre) comes more than four years after a Bromley council plans sub-committee turned down an application for change of use of 25 Church Road for religious services.”
PREMISES LICENCE
One of the ‘new’ drawings for the basement shows the label ‘pool’ which has been suggested is a baptismal font.
IN MID-APRIL Bromley council announced the premises licence application had been withdrawn.
IN APRIL Bromley council made the former cinema building at 25 Church Road an ‘asset of community value’ under the Localism Act 2011, following the Picture Palace Campaign’s nomination in December.
MINISTRY ( American industrial metal band. LP’s include: “Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs” 1992)
IN JULY campaigners fighting to turn the building back into a cinema learnt KICC were setting up a ‘Young Adults Ministry’ in the premises on the last Wednesday of every month which followed another ‘Night of Joy’ event at 25 Church Road held on Saturday July 19th.
CATCH 22** (American ska punk band)
Part of the problem facing – and frustrating – cinema campaigners is a ‘Catch 22’ situation involving differing views of different departments in Bromley council.
In an e-mail to a cinema campaigner, John Stephenson (acting planning investigation development control manager, Bromley council) who visited the July 19th event, wrote:
“I can confirm from my visit that what I witnessed was a concert and the acts on stage were all gospel performers. “As it was a concert it falls within the current permitted use Class of D2 and as a result does not amount to a breach of planning control.
“The applicant and their agents have been carrying out various surveys in order to submit a full and comprehensive planning application to address the concerns from pre application discussions with council officers, with the view of submitting a full application by August
2014.”
An email from Paul Lehane, head of food,safety and licensing, dated July 30th says: “Our view is that the entertainment provided by KICC falls within the exemptions for religious services and places of worship provided by Schedule 1 Para 9 Licensing Act 2003.
Religious services, places of worship etc.
9 The provision of any entertainment
(a) for the purposes of, or for purposes incidental to, a religious meeting or service, or (b) at a place of public religious worship, is not to be regarded as the provision of regulated entertainment for the purposes of this Act.
Therefore they do not require either a premises licence or a TEN.”
*White Wedding – Billy Ocean (just in case you were wondering)
**CATCH 22 Joseph Heller coined the term in his 1961 novel Catch-22, which describes absurd bureaucratic constraints on soldiers in World War II.
The term is introduced by the character Doc Daneeka, an army psychiatrist who invokes “Catch 22” to explain why any pilot requesting mental evaluation for insanity—hoping to be found not sane enough to fly and thereby escape dangerous missions—demonstrates his own sanity in making the request and thus cannot be declared insane.
James E. Combs and Dan D. Nimmo, authors of various American political books, suggest that the idea of a “catch-22” has gained popular currency because so many people in modern society are exposed to frustrating bureaucratic logic.
The term “catch-22” has filtered into common usage in the English language. In a 1975 interview, Heller said the term would not translate well into other languages. (Source: Wikipedia)
