Polish shop in Taunton town centre can no longer serve alcohol

A Polish convenience store in Taunton will no longer be able to sell alcohol to its customers following objections by local police.

Anna Kubiszyn-Michalik applied for a new licence for Stokrotka, which she runs on East Reach in the town centre.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary objected to the new licence, claiming the premises had been involved with underage sales and handling stolen goods – allegations firmly denied by the owner.

Somerset West and Taunton Council has now upheld the police’s concerns, meaning the shop can no longer sell alcohol to its customers.

The council’s licensing sub-committee met to discuss the issue on Monday morning (July 5).

The store was originally granted a licence in September 2010, but the original licence holders, Daro Shop Ltd, ceased trading in early-2020.

The new owners of the store, Stokrotka Taunton Ltd – run by Ms Kubiszyn-Michalik – applied for a new licence in late-August 2020, only for the council to issue one in March 2021 containing out-of-date and incorrect information.

This latest licence application, which was lodged in May, would have allowed Stokrotka to serve alcohol daily between 8am and 10:30pm – something the police said they could not tolerate.

Sergeant Andrew Gloyn, from the Taunton Central beat team, said East Reach was a “disproportionate” draw on police resources due to the prevalence of antisocial behaviour and street drinking – and said Stokrotka had not been cooperative in working with officers to tackle these problems.

He said: “There are multiple issues at the applicant’s address, including underage sales and suspected receiving of stolen goods. We have tried to work with the applicants but there has been a lack of understanding.

“Our visits have been misinterpreted by the applicant as being targeted by the police, when in fact we are trying to assist them.

“They have not demonstrated a willingness to work with us on the issues that we have raised.”

Gloyn clarified that neither allegation of underage drinking or handling stolen goods had led to a formal prosection – the former because the incident was reported by a local school (risking the identification of children), and the latter due to a previous lack of CCTV inside the shop (which has subsequently been addressed).

June Clarke, licensing consultant at JMC Licensing, said the police were attempting to portray her client as “incompetent” and dismissed the allegations as “spurious”.

She elaborated: “During one visit, Nicola Cooper [from the police’s licensing team] told Anna and her son that she was going to do anything to ensure that she did not get a licence.

“My client clearly denies these false claims. Anna is very upset about this. We believe Anna is more than capable of running her shop in a responsible manner.”

Following a 25-minute discussion in confidential session, the sub-committee voted to refuse the licence since it was not confident the business would abide by the recognised licensing objectives.

Councillor Mark Lithgow, who chaired the meeting, said: “We are not convinced that the licensing objectives would be met, so we are rejecting this application in its entirety.”

Kubiszyn-Michalik has 21 days to appeal the council’s decision through the magistrates’ court.