A distillery wants to offer tasting sessions at its new shop on a Cornish high street. However, the town council has objected as it fears it could potentially add to alcohol-related crime and antisocial behaviour in a “really problematic area”.

Pocketful of Stones, which produces high end gin, vodka, brandy and tequila at its distillery at Long Rock, Penzance, applied to Cornwall Council for a premises licence for its new shop on Falmouth’s Church Street, opposite St George’s Arcade.

A council licensing committee heard on Wednesday, September 11 that the premises would be open seven days a week from 11am to 9pm. It currently contains a shop, which sells bottles, gift packs and miniatures. The business wants to follow the success of its other shop on Causewayhead, Penzance, and open a tasting room downstairs in its Church Street store.

However, Falmouth Town Council objected to the licence application as the shop is in the heart of a Cumulative Impact Zone (CIZ), which limits the growth of licensed premises in a problem area.

Cllr Debra Clegg, from the town council, said: “Our objection was purely on the Cumulative Impact Zone. These premises are slap bang in the middle of a really problematic area for Falmouth and its residents. It’s the main part where we have lots of alcohol-related complaints, crime issue and antisocial behaviour.

“We don’t have a view on whether these premises would add to that. They’ve obviously got limited hours and are quite different to other businesses in that part of the town, but we do have the zone and this is adding potentially to alcohol-related issues.”

Committee chairman Cllr Sheila Lennox-Boyd asked Cllr Clegg what the summer had been like within Falmouth and the CIZ. “We always get antisocial and alcohol-related issues in that part of the street. Admittedly, it’s much later [than the shop would be open]. There’s not been an increase which, of course, we don’t want, but it certainly hasn’t lessened. ”

The meeting heard that the distillery started in 2016 and now employs 20 people. It opened a bar, tasting room and shop in Penzance and wanted to repeat the successful model in Falmouth, where the shop opened last month. There is unlikely to be a bar in the Falmouth premises due to a lack of space.

However, the company wants to create a tasting room downstairs. This would cost £20 per person for a welcome gin and tonic and four single shot gin tastings, complete with a history of the company and its production, and details about spirits in general. Customers would also be allowed to try other spirits including whisky and tequila.

A spokesperson for the company told councillors: “These are premium spirits with the majority of the ingredients sourced from Cornwall. The cheapest bottle is £35 and the highest is £95, so our clientèle are people who enjoy those premium spirits. They’re not consumed in a binge drinking sort of way.

“The group sizes will be small. We’re not going to have 30, 40, 50 people coming out of the shop, drunk, screaming and making lots of noise. It will be maximum of 20 people in a controlled atmosphere. Our customers will have moved on by the time many of those businesses around us start serving, so that’s not adding to the problem.”

The meeting was told that staff have worked in the licensing trade and are trained in how to deal with antisocial behaviour. The licensing committee felt that with conditions agreed with the police, the premises licence would not add to public nuisance and crime and disorder, and approved the application.