Business / Lerwick shop given go-ahead to deliver alcohol
A LERWICK shop has successfully applied to sell alcohol through the phone and online and deliver it to customers.
Sales of beers, wines and spirits would be processed, and dispatched or collected, from the Staney Hill Shop.
The licence variation was approved at a meeting of the Shetland licensing board on Monday.
Council solicitor Keith Adam said the application came in at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, which is when a number of shops began delivering goods to customers.
He added that while national legislation allows delivery of alcohol up to 1am, in this case deliveries would only be made prior to 10pm.
The purchase of the alcohol, however, would have to be made by 10pm.
Lerwick councillor Cecil Smith said he had a “wee bit of concern” over the potential for additional drinking if alcohol was being delivered straight to someone’s door.
“How many orders can go to one house?” he questioned.
Adam said that the licensing act does not cover the number of times orders can go to a recipient, with it just referring to the timing of sales and delivery.
He added that delivery of alcohol was already taking place in Shetland.
North mainland member Alastair Cooper also raised concern that when delivering alcohol to a home “nobody has a clue about the state of the inhabitants”.
South mainland councillor George Smith also said he was surprised there were no comments made on the application from the local health board.
But with the delivery of alcohol already taking place in Shetland he said he was happy to move that the application be approved, with Lerwick councillor Malcolm Bell seconding.
The board also heard that the joint administrators of the owners of Scalloway Hotel have applied for the transfer of the building’s premises licence.
The hotel closed earlier this year after the company running it went into administration.
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