A Brighton takeaway owner faces opposition to his latest attempt to stay open into the early hours of the morning.
Abbanoub Salama, who owns Fish and Chips, in Preston Street, Brighton, was turned down when he previously applied for a late licence to serve customers until 3am.
Licensing officials from Brighton and Hove City Council and Sussex Police lodged formal objections – in line with the council’s policy of restricting new licences in the “saturated” centre of Brighton.
Now Mr Salama wants to use “temporary event notices” (TENs) to enable his premises to stay open until 5am over four weekends.
His proposal is due to be considered by a council licensing panel, made up of three councillors, at a hearing on Wednesday (16 June).
When Mr Salama’s application for a late licence went before a licensing panel in April, he said that Preston Street was “dead” and his takeaway needed to trade later into the night.
The police have opposed the use of temporary event notices as a way to stay open until 5am on Saturday and Sunday mornings from this weekend until the second weekend of July.
The premises would not be selling alcohol but would be open for takeaway food and soft drinks only.
A letter from Sussex Police’s Brighton and Hove Licensing Unit, with the sender’s details redacted, said that temporary event notices were for community events, not a device to extend operating hours.
The police described the area as “saturated” with late-night licensed businesses which added to the “challenges” faced by the emergency services.
In Preston Street, 42 of the 57 businesses were licensed, with 10 able to trade after midnight
The letter said: “Sussex Police’s original concerns about this premises trading until the early hours due to its close proximity to the main night-time economy area still stand.
“The risks have not been removed with the additional hours operating under a TEN rather than on the main premises licence.
“Preston Street experiences significant footfall from members of the public entering and leaving the central area of Brighton and is in an area saturated with licensed premises. Due to this, the area already experiences anti-social behaviour.
“Sussex Police believe that operating this premises over four consecutive weekends until 5am would assist in keeping persons in the area longer and in turn increases the risk of crime and disorder and public nuisance.”
Preston Street is in the area of central Brighton where Sussex Police runs “Operation Marble”, deploying extra officers to deal with problems related to the night-time economy.
The virtual licensing panel hearing is due to start at 10am on Wednesday (16 June) and is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
If the street is ‘dead’ why would you possibly want your business to stay open later? Makes no sense to use that as an argument to stay open, who will they serve if there are no customers about?
This sounds like a sensible application. Many businesses can help meet the cost of rising rents and rates, and recoup lost trade from the pandemic, by extending their opening hours in a safe and well managed way. What we nobody would want is more failed businesses, lost livelihoods, lost jobs and more boarded up units on the high street.
I’m unclear why the police evidence states that Temporary Events Notices (TENs) designed for “community events”. Nowhere in the Home Office guidance on TENs does it say this. Police comments for licensing hearings should present only facts and evidence, rather than personal opinion. It would be useful to see the evidence of how many incidents of late night crime and antisocial behaviour are recorded in Preston Street, compared to the average for areas with a night time economy.