A takeaway has been granted a late-night licence to open until 4am, despite objections from Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove City Council’s licensing team.
Brighton Pizza and Chicken, in London Road, had a late-night refreshment licence that permitted food sales until 2am at weekends and to midnight from Sunday to Thursday.
The business owner Javid Omare has recently taken over the business and completed an SIA (Security Industry Authority) door staff course to comply with conditions proposed by Sussex Police.
At a council licensing panel hearing on Tuesday 4 February, Sussex Police licensing officer Claire Abdelkader said that the takeaway was in a high-crime area.
Over the past year, there were 469 incidents in London Road and neighbouring streets, mostly violent crimes during the day and evening.
She said that although the licence did not include the sale of alcohol, the presence of late-night food venues encouraged people who had been drinking to gather in the area.
Concerns were also raised about an online listing saying that the business was open until 2am daily.
Mr Omare said that he had amended the website but was not aware that the details were still wrong. Google, though, showed an 11pm daily closing time.
A condition on the new licence requires deliveries to be made by Brighton Pizza and Chicken’s team and not third-party companies such as Deliveroo or Uber Eats. And the premises will not be permitted to have an outside seated area.
The new opening hours allowed by the late-night refreshment licence are Sunday to Thursday noon to 2am and Friday and Saturday noon to 4am.
The council decision was made by a licensing panel made up of three Labour councillors – John Hewitt, Paul Nann and Alison Thomson.
The council’s decision letter said: “The panel considers that a later operation for takeaway and delivery would not undermine the licensing objectives.
“The evidence pointed to daytime rather than late-night issues in the area and the panel considers that the chance of increased disorder and further incidents linked to these premises opening later is speculative.”
So the police objected to a late night pizza venue in case the people there caused problems. The evidence didn’t support this view, but they objected anyway. I mean, why not just impose a curfew and be done with it.
More generally, there is evidence backing about early morning establishment attracting ASB, so it makes sense why Sussex Police would object. You could certainly argue the strength of that argument though.
why does anyone need to eat pizza and booze at 4o’clock in the morning?
Why would the council grant a licence to a high violent crime area until 4am, there food is disgusting and I don’t suggest anyone to order from them.