A Brighton takeaway can keep selling food for an extra hour a night – but for delivery only.
Subway, in Lewes Road, Brighton, applied for a late-night licence to be allowed to make deliveries until 3am on Saturdays and Sundays and 2am on weekdays.
Sussex Police opposed the application so it went before a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel two weeks ago (Monday 5 October).
The force opposed the application as the branch is in the council’s “special stress area” – a swathe of Brighton and Hove where council policy is for takeaways to close at midnight to prevent public nuisance and crime.
The panel of three councillors said that the franchise, run by Nikita Bhairi, could make deliveries until midnight – but the doors should be shut at 11pm.
At the licensing panel hearing, licensing officer Claire Abdulkader, from Sussex Police, said that Lewes Road had a problem with violent crime.
This did not ease during the coronavirus lockdown in the spring and early summer, she said.
Eamonn Campbell, for Subway, said that CCTV would be installed at the premises.
At the hearing, councillors and the police raised concerns that the takeaway was sometimes operating after its closing time without a licence.
The councillors said in their decision notice: “The panel does have serious concerns about the lack of knowledge of the licensing objectives, licensing regime and policy demonstrated by and on behalf of the applicant, especially when it emerged during questioning, that deliveries may currently be taking place until 1.30am to 2am without a licence in place.
“The panel shares the police concerns about the area … and the potential for crime and disorder and public nuisance and considers that, even with a delivery service only, there is still the likelihood of increased public nuisance after midnight within a heavily residential area.”
The new licence requires a visible closed sign and the door must be locked at 11pm.
