A chicken and pizza takeaway boss criticised “hypothetical” objections to his application for a premises licence to trade into the early hours of the morning.
Ishaq Karimi, 32, the owner of Checkachicken Ltd, applied to Brighton and Hove City Council for a premises licence to sell “late-night refreshment” at Chicks, in Lewes Road, Brighton.
Mr Karimi said that the application was for “a small takeaway shop”, adding: “We want to sell takeaway foods for collection and delivery.”
He applied for a late-night licence for Sunday to Thursday from 11pm to 1am and on Fridays and Saturdays from 11pm to 5am.
A council licensing panel was told that the business, which does not sell alcohol, could trade without a licence until 11pm.
The licensing panel, made up of three councillors, was told yesterday (Tuesday 7 March) that the application overlooked the location of Lewes Road in the council’s “special stress area”.
The area is covered by tighter licensing rules, including restrictions on late-night food outlets, with the aim of reducing crime and disorder.
Sussex Police licensing officers Mark Thorogood said that there were issues with crime and disorder along Lewes Road and nearby on The Level.
Chicks is in the St Peter’s and North Laine electoral ward which has the highest level of violence against the person out of all 21 wards in Brighton and Hove.
Although the application does not include alcohol sales, Mr Thorogood said that late-night hot-food outlets encouraged people “under the influence” to stay in the area.
This added to crime and disorder, anti-social behaviour and public nuisance – and he was also concerned about delivery drivers parking in the area.
Mr Thorogood said: “The premises is right next to the busy junction with Elm Grove and the pedestrian crossing. There are no parking facilities outside, not even loading or unloading permitted.
“There is also a cycle lane that would be blocked by any vehicles parking illegally there, forcing cyclists on to the busy section of the road or on to the pavement area.
“There are a number of side roads close by which are fully residential and parking is at a premium both night and day.
“We already see delivery drivers parking illegally and causing a nuisance to other road users and using residential bays in the side roads causing a nuisance to residents.
“We cannot stop deliveries during unregulated hours but can reduce the impact by refusing the application and having the premises close by midnight.”
Michael Landon, director of MSA Law Management, represented a neighbour who objected to the application.
Mr Landon said that his client was concerned about security at the business and about anti-social behaviour from people in the area late at night.
He said: “There have been numerous occasions when she has been verbally abused or approached in an inappropriate manner either on her way home in the early evening or even during the daytime by strangers who are drunk or under the influence of substances.
“She rarely goes out at night and she just doesn’t feel safe doing so.”
Mr Karimi, who also owns the neighbouring Mama Pollo restaurant, said that he was sorry to hear about his neighbour’s experience.
He told the licensing panel that he had also experienced public nuisance problems and was as responsible for preventing crime as every other person in the area.
He said: “Sussex Police, Brighton licensing team and my good neighbour have not provided a single, solid, measurable piece of evidence to say that opening my operation until late hours would be contributing to accumulating problems.
“All the objections and scenarios they have said are hypothetical – basically, saying a shop opening until late leads to crime.
“It’s like a meteorite coming from the sky hitting the earth. The probability of those things happening is not provided in a measurable way.”
One of the three members of the council licensing panel, Green councillor Steve Davis, asked where delivery drivers would wait.
He said that, as co-chair of the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, he was aware of issues along Lewes Road with delivery drivers blocking cycle lanes and affecting bus services.
Mr Karimi said that he would ensure his drivers used the loading bays only and was willing to accept this as a condition on the licence.
The panel – which also included Conservative councillors Dee Simson and Carol Theobald – retired to reach a decision which should be made public within five working days.
His delivery drivers would only use loading bays? Where?? These shop owner’s park up there vehicles everyday along the bottom of lewes road next to the junction with Elm grove with impunity. I live local and am forever seeing cyclists have near collisions due to having to weave around vans parked in the cycle lane. Look outside the grocery store that somehow stays open even though never has customer’s!! All day everyday has a white van outside blocking the bike lane.
Indeed – what loading bays? There is only the pavement and the road with double yellow lines outside any of the seemingly endless fast food premises along the Lewes Road. Quite honestly I think that there is already a surfeit of these establishments open for long enough on this particular stretch of road and quite frankly anyone requiring junk food at that time of night is probably a ‘little worse for wear’ anyway and likely to add to the already consideabe level of anti-social behaviour…
Loading bay is around the corner. Basically they just need to put up an anpr camera that fines people who park there at this junction. It’s really bad for people parking wherever they want and it doesn’t help that the traffic wardens are to busy in the suburbs ticketing people who’s forgotten to renew their vouchers.
We all pay a fortune in this city for parking, they could easily afford to make a warden just patrol Lewes road for a few months once every hour or so
Bottom end of Lewes road is akin to Oxford street in London-except they used sweets and souvenirs…