A local shooting club has had its premises license revoked following "substantial and flagrant" breaches of Coronavirus restrictions and rules regarding the storage of guns.

The decision was taken at the latest meeting of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council's Licensing Sub-Committee after police presented evidence of a number of license breaches taking place at Cloudside Shooting Ground - between Congleton and Rushton Spencer.

A decision was originally meant to be taken in May, but the meeting had to be postponed due to technical difficulties.

Police said, during a visit to the shooting grounds in December last year, they found five people drinking and eating mince pies inside the building, which was a breach of the Coronavirus restrictions in place at the time.

Police also said they obtained CCTV footage of the club and found breaches taking place on several other days in December, with no social distancing and few Covid precautions in place.

The club, on the other hand, argued that it is located in Cheshire and not Staffordshire, meaning it was only subject to Tier 2 restrictions at the time, rather than the Tier 3 restrictions imposed on Staffordshire.

However, the committee concluded that the club's operators knew they were in Tier 3, and sort to take advantage of the club's location on the Staffordshire/Cheshire border to mislead customers.

The committee was also shown CCTV footage of guns being left "uncovered and unattended" in the premises, and were "especially alarmed" to see footage of a baby having its nappy changed with an unattended gun nearby, pointing the baby's direction.

After reviewing the evidence the committee concluded that the shooting grounds had shown "substantial and flagrant" license breaches and a "blatant lack of responsibility", and felt that revoking the license was an appropriate response.

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