Neighbours have objected to a café’s plans to serve alcohol at a former art gallery site.
Fika Ave wants a drinks licence from 9am to 9pm daily for 1 Victoria Grove, in Second Avenue, Hove, the former home of Cameron Contemporary Art.
Fika, which also has sites in Norton Road, Hove, and at Sea Lanes, in Madeira Drive, Brighton, has plans for 40 seats inside the venue and 30 outside, with no plans for off-sales.
The two objections mean that the application will be decided by a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel, made up of three councillors.
The panel is due to reach its decision at a hearing scheduled for Friday (22 November).
One of the objectors, whose details have been redacted by the council, objected to the application because there was another late-night bar, Tapestry, formerly Libation, near by.
The anonymous objector said: “We already deal with considerable noise pollution, not to mention empty glass bottles and vomit outside our home.
“It seems excessive to have two establishments in one residential street serving alcohol into the night.”
Another neighbour, whose details were also redacted, raised concerns about noise from a second venue.
The anonymous objector said: “Fika will be closer to where we live and within this residential area.
“The threat of extra noise, on top of the bar that’s already here, in an already quiet and peaceful residential road, is something I object to.”
The resident asked that all patrons remain inside during the evenings to minimise noise.
Sussex Police have agreed draft “café licence conditions” with Fika, requiring hot and cold food to be available whenever alcohol is on sale.
These draft conditions would require customers to be seated at tables and served by waiting staff. “Vertical drinking” – people standing while they have their drink – would not be allowed.
The panel is due to meet at 10am on Friday (22 November). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
NOTE This story has been corrected to remove a reference to the premises having been a bar in the past.
The opening sentence seems a bit disingenuous – “Neighbours have objected to a café’s plans to serve alcohol even though the premises used to be a bar.” I’ve lived in the area for the past 12 years and it’s never been a bar in that time. Maybe it was a bar a long time ago but this seems overly dismissive of residents concerns.
That being said I don’t think this place serving the odd drink until 9pm would be much of a problem. Fika doesn’t serve the sort of food that people are going to want to eat in the evening so I can’t see it being that busy and Tapestry isn’t that busy or noisy these days, when it was Libation they did a good job of dissuading the noisy coke sniffing crowd from going there and they went across the road instead, now that La Fourchette is no more they’ve gone somewhere else entirely. I think most of the the bottles, glasses and occasional vomit pile are thanks to people leaving the Gin Tub late at night and hanging around at the top of 2nd Avenue rather than people leaving Tapestry.
The problem in Brighton and Hove are the late night shops selling alcohol not well run bars, restaurants and clubs.
The two objections seem to be at odds with each other. One describing dealing with excessive noise, the other describing a peaceful road.