Maidstone Councillors Refuse Alcohol Licence for Week Street Shop After Failed Age-Check Tests

Maidstone Borough Council's licensing sub-committee has refused an application to sell alcohol at Homeland, 105-107 Week Street, after Kent County Council Trading Standards told the hearing on Monday 21 September that the shop had a record of failed age checks and seized illegal goods. The applicant didn't attend, and the committee said that left it with no evidence of how proposed safeguards would work.

The application was for a premises licence allowing the sale of alcohol from 7am to 11pm, seven days a week. Trading Standards and ten other people objected. Kent Police had also objected but withdrew after conditions were agreed, including that nobody under 18 could enter the store unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. The committee refused the licence anyway.

Trading Standards' representative said the shop had failed Challenge 25 test purchases, the scheme under which retailers ask for ID from anyone who looks under 25, and that it couldn't produce a refusal register when asked to in August. He said there was no evidence of staff training since 2022, staff questioned weren't aware of the register, and CCTV wasn't working at the time of the visit and hadn't been for a while. He added that the premises had struggled to stay compliant on counterfeit goods and underage sales despite repeated support, and that he was told different things at the August visit from what the application said about where alcohol would be stored and whether the shop sold food.

In its written decision the committee said it noted Trading Standards' evidence of counterfeit goods, non-compliant vapes and nicotine products, and underage sales, and that, by its count, three test purchases had been failed in total, two of them in 2026 despite informal advice. It said the applicant had shown little understanding of responsible sales of age-restricted products, and that because the applicant didn't attend it had nothing to show how the agreed conditions, including staff training and the under-18s restriction, would be complied with in practice. It rejected the licence on two grounds, preventing crime and disorder and protecting children from harm. It said it had been given no evidence to act on the concerns raised about public safety and public nuisance.

The refusal concerns only the alcohol licence. Anyone aggrieved by a licensing decision can appeal to the Magistrates' Court within 21 days of being notified, and the court can make an order on costs. The applicant didn't attend the hearing and we haven't heard from the business. Source: Maidstone Borough Council Licensing Sub-Committee, 21 September 2026 (draft minutes and signed notice of determination)