A worker at a petrol station off two major roads has hit out at plans for the site to be given a 24-hour licence to sell alcohol - as it prepares to give its convenience store a refurbishment.
Shell Barthomley, at Crewe Services near junction 16 of the M6 - where the motorway meets the A500 between Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe - has applied for a licence that would allow it to sell booze, to be consumed off the premises, around the clock.
The garage, which shares the site with a Greggs, a Travelodge and a KFC Drive Thru, has also applied to provide late night refreshment, including hot drinks and warm snack foods, between 11pm and 5am when the refurbishment takes place later this year.
One employee at the petrol station has lodged an objection to the application with Cheshire East Council saying they have a number of concerns about the scheme and that they 'don't think it's a good idea' and that 'no one at this site' wants it.
In their statement opposing the scheme, the anonymous worker said: "I work the night shifts and how many people we get at night who are drunk and ask if we sell booze is uncountable.
"If we say we don’t sell booze then that’s the end of the matter they go on their way, but if we did sell booze we wouldn’t be able to sell it to them because they’re drunk.
"That leads to us getting harassed on the night shifts because we didn’t sell them alcohol, I have friends and family who have had this experience a lot. Even myself at a previous job. Vigilance can only go so far before the constant harassing takes its toll.
"We get roughly nine drunks for every one sober person asking for booze. Even tonight as I’m writing this email there have been two incidents involving drunken people in which the police have been involved in.
"Given that we are off a junction for the M6 I don’t think it’s a good idea to be selling booze just because of the close proximity to the motorway. You wouldn’t have a pub in a service station."
"You never gave this site a license before it was Shell, and if I’m honest I don’t particularly see why it should be given one now. I strongly believe that it will cause more grief to not just the workers in the petrol station but to KFC, Travelodge and Greggs.
"Travelodge especially as they will have a lot of customers getting drunk in there rooms at the night time and possibly having to call the police. The only benefit I can see of having a license is that profits will go up ever so slightly. But the negatives outweigh the positives tenfold."
The employee added there were also issues with amount of space in the petrol station's storeroom.
In their application form, Shell said the petrol station's convenience store served both the local community and passing motorists.
The application added: "This is a well-established convenience store which is due to undergo a refurbishment later this year. The site trades under Shell UK Oil Products Limited and is operated by Khanna Petroleum Limited. An ATM will be located on site.
"The convenience store will have retail area of approximately 630 sq ft.
"The purpose built store has been designed to serve both the local community along with passing trade. The convenience store operates 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The store will stock a range of fresh foods and dairy produce, groceries and other domestic products and will also offer ‘express’ lunch facilities.
"In addition dry fuel products such as BBQ charcoal/kindling/logs will be available. Off sales are a standard and expected feature of the convenience store service. The internal and external digital CCTV system will benefit from a recorder with 31 day image retention and recordings can be made available to Police and other enforcement agencies as needed.
"The convenience store will be operated by the Manager assisted by a team of full and part time staff. The Designated Premises Supervisor, is trained and certified through an accredited scheme and is responsible for training all staff-utilising the Lockett & Co Due Diligence package-and keeping complete training records. The Challenge 25 trading initiative will be used supported by the refusals system with records kept in the Refusals Log."
Cheshire East Council's Licensing Sub-committee are set to make a decision on the application at 2pm on Friday (June 21).
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