The boss of a Brighton halal restaurant and takeaway who wants to stay open until 3am said that he was just trying to meet increasing demand.
Rafiullah Khan, who run Zaf’ron, in North Road, Brighton, said: “We applied for a late-night licence because of exceptional demand from our regular customers.”
Mr Khan said that his business catered for people who worked late-night shifts, including NHS workers, security staff and taxi drivers, who just wanted healthy fresh food.
He said that there was nowhere else in the area like his Afghani and Persian restaurant and takeaway – and that there had been no noise complaints and no anti-social behaviour.
Mr Khan addressed a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel today (Tuesday 20 August) after the council and Sussex Police objected to his application.
The premises can currently trade until 11am but needs a late-night refreshment licence to trade beyond that time. Mr Khan, 20, of Chelwood Close, Hollingbury, has not applied to sell alcohol.
He also said that he would only sell food to takeaway and delivery customers after 11pm and would use his own delivery drivers or riders – for now.
The council and police said that they had twice found the premises trading after 11pm without a licence. Mark Thorogood, from Sussex Police, said: “We have some ongoing and previous history with this premises.”
The duty manager had told police that it was a one-off but leaflets on the counter clearly said that the business was open until midnight.
A formal letter was sent to mark the breach of licensing rules, Mr Thorogood said, but a few weeks later the business was still advertising midnight closing on Facebook, Just Eat and Google.
The same closing time was still advertised online months later – and even this morning, Mr Thorogood said, adding: “This was clearly not a one-off and we were being misled.”
Mr Khan said that he had taken over the business but did not have access to the Facebook account – only to Instagram but those posts automatically went up on the linked Facebook page.
The council and police also said that the proposed hours did not comply with council licensing policies, not least in the busy centre of Brighton which was “saturated” with licensed premises.
Labour councillor David McGregor wondered whether the policies had been so successful that there was now a scarcity of places selling food but not alcohol into the early hours, making the application “exceptional”.
Councillor McGregor asked about the benefits of food for people who had been drinking – and whether data supported links between late-night food venues and anti-social behaviour.
Mr Thorogood cited high crime figures in the locality, including between midnight and 3am, and said that the council’s licensing policies were based on evidence. The application, he said, was not in line with those policies.
Labour councillor Paull Nann said that the area was something of a food desert late at night and asked whether the premises was really likely to attract many extra people from outside the area.
Council licensing official Donna Lynsdale said that there were concerns that a late-night food venue could attract people who had been drinking, increasing the risk of anti-social behaviour in the area.
Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons said that it was hard to know where else people who were in the area could buy food late at night without having to head, say, up London Road towards Preston Circus.
He noted that unlike, say, the seafront there were hardly any late-closing pubs and clubs in the area which also included many people’s homes.
Mr Thorogood added that a new late-night takeaway and delivery operation in North Road could result in more crime and anti-social behavour in the area. This could spread the police more thinly at times when they were already busy.
Mr Thorogood said: “Our concern here is that, by permitting this venue a licence to trade late-night refreshments after 11pm, we will be encouraging additional persons into this area late at night and into the early hours, possibly resulting in an increase in crime as well as the additional footfall causing an ASB (anti-social behaviour) issue.
“There is also the increased risk of ASB caused by delivery riders on mopeds pulling up outside into the early hours which would be a new issue in this location as there is not currently a late-night food venue on this part of the street.
“In the application, they have also stated that they wish to open even later during Christmas and New Year’s Eve but have not stated until what time.”
He added that the police had “a lack of confidence in the management” and urged the panel of three councillors to reject the application.
The panel retired to make its decision which should be made public within five working days.
“I fully support the idea of keeping the restaurant open until 3am! It would provide more options for late-night dining and entertainment, and could help boost the local economy. Let’s make it happen!”
I’ve been wondering what “boost the local economy” actually means in this context beyond the personal gain for the business owner. Also, there appears to be a blatant ignoring of the license conditions already; I don’t feel it is reasonable to award him with extended hours.
Late night workers that need halal slaughtered animals. Can’t they pick up a veggie burger or something else close by.
Why would a cabbie want a veggie burger? As an ex cabbie myself, not in Brighton, we had little choice other than mcdonald’s. Need something different
If your a cabbie, then your in a vehicle, so can drive elsewhere very easily… Think about it for a second lol
Fresh, healthy food apparently 😂
There are many nights at around 2 or 3 am when the desire for a Bacon roll and a mug of tea could get the better of me.
Za’fron sounds just the place for me.
It’s 3am and the thought of a bacon roll and a mug of tea is overwhelming – Za’fron thats the place for me!
Failure to allow this would be racist. No alcohol involved with customers of Halal takeaway. Most of the taxi drivers in this city are Egyptian… allow them access to something that is suitable for them.
Egyptians are a nationality not a race, so calls of racism would be nonsense.
Why have we found it necessary to import Egyptians to be taxi drivers in the City?
How many British taxi drivers work their trade on the streets of Cairo?
A point well made, and how many of them are on carer visas. The whole stop the boats dribble is a side show to the real issue of a truly broken visa system that lets any tom dick or harry in, rather than the skilled workers that we actually need. Instead we have tons of these single males in, driving taxis or doing deliveroo or working for Amazon, why driving jobs you ask, because they don’t need to learn the language. Which is hardly what multiculturalism is about.
Coffee and bacon roll in a halal restaurant you having a laugh
Isn’t halal a somewhat medieval form of slaughter for this day and age? There may have been some good reasons for some of these practices hundreds of years ago but I have some reservations about taking animal welfare advice from an ancient book.
Reminds me of a conversation I had about how Halal food was chosen. Halal did make sense in the context of historic times. A lot of food that are forbidden are the ones that would be most likely to contain diseases, especially with humanities lack of understanding around food hygiene at that point. Also the blood was perceived to be a main carrier of disease.
Of course this reasoning doesn’t translate into modern times with our advanced hygiene methods, but it is interesting to reflect on how religions were strong sources of educated knowledge for things like this.
Production of Halal meat is revolting and cruel.
They are not selling alcohol.that they will be the reason of increasing crime ratio it’s very important to have such a food at late night as they have more Arab customers who are student and if they don’t have such food at late night so it’s negative impact for Brighton as when Arabs go back to their home country they always complains about brightons food that they don’t have much halal food in the town and specially in late night.
Ok, I take your point. My point is why is Halal food necessary in this day and age when eating non Halal meat is perfectly safe for people?
I don’t think Arabs are going home complaining about food because 1 kebab shop isn’t open at 3am lol
Kebab shops at 3 am cater for drunk people.
Equally it’s not about if you serve alcohol or not, drunk people who would normally not congregate in the area, would start to. And it’s a highly residential area. So all your neighbours would be woken up by drunks shouting, or as you say only Arabs would use it, I presume they will be silent, doubtful if western road is anything to go by… Take your pick but it’s a selfish move to request this license in this area. Maybe move the shop to London road…