A takeaway will not be allowed to stay open until 5am after councillors refused an application to extend its late-night licence.
Chicks, in Lewes Road, Brighton, can continue to operate until 1am after it was granted a late-night refreshment licence in March last year.
Ishaq Karimi, 33, who was a director of the business until last month, asked for later hours at a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel on Thursday 6 June.
He was speaking in place of the owner, Norr Rahman Momand, 53.
The council’s licensing team and Sussex Police objected to the application after checks were carried out twice in April and officers found breaches of conditions.
They said that the breaches included the business still trading at 1.15am and staff unable to operate the close-circuit television (CCTV) system.
Police licensing officer Hannah Staplehurst told councillors that within about 300 yards of the business there were 96 violent crimes, 61 incidents of anti-social behaviour and 23 public order offences over the previous year.
Council licensing officer Donna Lynsdale said that there were no policy grounds for granting a further extension in this “challenging area” and no “exceptional circumstances shown” to grant an even later licence.
The three members of the council licensing panel were told that delivery drivers had been parking in front of the business in breach of a licence condition. This was on the new red route.
Mr Karimi told the panel that a robust policy was not yet in place for delivery drivers.
He said though that later trading hours would deter people from committing crimes in the area – and that none of the incidents mentioned related to the premises.
The council sent Chicks a decision letter rejecting the application and noting that when the business applied for its licence just over a year ago it had committed to working with the police and council.
The letter said: “The panel is therefore disappointed that breaches of conditions were discovered during the licensing visit in April this year.
“The fact that staff were unaware of the conditions on the licence was a concern and itself a breach of one of the conditions where staff should be trained.
“The panel has listened carefully to the submissions of the applicant but ultimately does not consider it is appropriate to grant this variation which would be a considerable extension of hours in a challenging location.
“The panel does not have sufficient confidence that the applicant will manage such a licence given the failure to adhere to the current conditions on the licence recently granted.”
Good, sick of this guy blocking Lewes road evey single day of the week
Did not think this one would get through.
Police licensing Officer Hannah Staplehurst told councillors that within about 300 yards of the business there were 96 violent crimes, 61 incidents of anti-social behaviour and 23 public order offences over the previous year.
We’re constantly being told that the entire Lewes Road is now a “student area” how does this fit with the statement above?
Not very well.
One needs to avoid a minimalistic approach to explaining it, and avoid the pitfall of trying to link two things without evidence. There are also quite a few supported accommodations, off licences, and drinking establishments along the considerable length of Lewes Road.
Statistics can be used to say pretty much whatever you want sometimes, depending on how you want to interpret them.