Reading’s Oxford Road gets new off-licence, but with super-strength booze ban

Oxford Road in Reading, where a police crackdown led to the licence review of no less than six stores, will get a new ‘supermarket’ after plans were approved for a new off-licence near Reading West Station.

Reading Borough Council’s Licensing Applications committee approved a licence for new shop Oxford Road Supermarket, which will replace MTC Motorcycles at 267-271 Oxford Road.

But the shop will not be able to sell beer and cider above 6.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, another shop on Oxford Road, Butts Convenience Store, was handed a super-strength booze ban at the same meeting after Thames Valley Police (TVP) asked for its licence to be reviewed following failures to follow conditions, including the suspected employment of an illegal worker.

Reading shop fined £10,000 and told it cannot sell super strength alcohol

TVP officer Simon Wheeler said, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Home Office was not able to investigate whether a worker did not have the right to work in the UK.

He said the police would have asked for the licence to be revoked if there was proof an illegal worker had been employed.

Butts Convenience Store’s legal representative Surendra Panchal said the shop’s management does not know whether the employee had the right to work in the UK.

Both shops have been handed a series of conditions to help tackle street drinking and anti-social behaviour, with Butts Convenience Store also being banned from selling single cans along with the 6.5 per cent ban.

TVP says sales of super-strength cheap beers and ciders on Oxford Road is “fuelling incidents of alcohol related crime and disorder in the area”, and says it is “of extreme concern and a priority for the Oxford Road residents and community to resolve this issue”.

Six Oxford Road stores have had their licences reviewed in the last few months, with one store – Willis & Short – still awaiting a hearing to decide which conditions will be added to its licence.