Day 074 - 16 Jan 95 - Page 47


     
     1        extension of our licence proved to be counter productive",
     2        do you feel that really the residents have only got
     3        themselves to blame for the problems with late night
     4        environment/index.html">litter?
     5        A.  If you have those people eating in, then the potential
     6        problem is contained within the restaurant.  People will
     7        eat in and they will sit down and especially after having
     8        one or two drinks, they will sit down and have a cup coffee
     9        or whatever and drop all the environment/index.html">litter within the restaurant
    10        and leave the restaurant.
    11
    12   Q.   Yes, I understand that, but do you just feel that, well, it
    13        is the residents' only fault for making objections; they
    14        should not be complaining now about the environment/index.html">litter because if
    15        they had not opposed your late night licence there would
    16        not a problem?
    17        A.  If there is a late night licence, there would not be a
    18        problem.  On the other hand, it is still the duty of the
    19        existing manager to make sure that things work accordingly
    20        and you do not just sit back just because the application
    21        had been turned down.  That was one of the suggestions
    22        which came up, that we should try to request for a late
    23        night cafe licence just to contain the problem.
    24
    25   Q.   If you wanted to control the problem you could have stopped
    26        doing take-aways, could you not, and closed at 11 o'clock?
    27        A.  Well, that is not within my power to answer that
    28        question, the opening and closing hours.
    29
    30   Q.   Why?  Who is that set by then?
    31        A.  Those are set by the company when the opening hours are
    32        and when the closing hours are.
    33
    34   Q.   What would happen if you closed the store at 11 o'clock?
    35        A.  If you closed the store at 11 o'clock you would not
    36        sell after that.
    37
    38   Q.   Yes, I know, but what would happen?  What would Head Office
    39        do about it?
    40        A.  It is their own decision, so they would not do it, they
    41        would not say anything.
    42
    43   Q.   So you could have closed at 11 o'clock to contain the
    44        environment/index.html">litter problems?
    45        A.  Basically, you provide a facility.  If it was such that
    46        the customer had thought that they should not have come in
    47        because there was a problem of environment/index.html">litter, there would not have
    48        been anybody who had walked into that restaurant after
    49        11.00.  You actually provide the facility to your local
    50        resident community and to your customer.  So, basically, 
    51        that facility was provided.  People wanted McDonald's to be 
    52        open between 11.00 and 12.00, otherwise they would have 
    53        stopped coming in and we would have closed anyway at
    54        11 o'clock.
    55
    56   Q.   Did you actually know whether they were all local anyway?
    57        A.  Well, no, I would not say that I knew, but they come
    58        from the local pubs and some of them from the local wine
    59        bars, so I assume.
    60

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