A burger bar business has applied for a late-night refreshment licence so that it can keep trading until 3am.
But Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove City Council licensing officials objected to the proposal for premises in West Street, Brighton, because of high crime levels.
The application was made by Bino Hospitality, a London company run by Shamsun Shamin, 33, which owns Smacks Hamburger, at 46 West Street, Brighton.
The company wants the licence to be able to sell food and drink – but not alcohol – from 11pm to 3am daily, with the premises opening hours from 11am.
The business has already operated at the site for six months without needing a late licence. The premises was previously home to Really Happy Chicken.
At a council licensing panel hearing today (Monday 14 July), Richard Haddad, a chartered environmental health officer, spoke for Bino Hospitality, saying that Really Happy Chicken had a late-night licence, allowing it to trade from 11pm until midnight.
Mr Haddad said that the company’s representatives had checked the centre of Brighton and found that more than 30 food and drink businesses had closed in the area since 2023.
But he was told that there was not a policy of “one in one out” when it came to licensed businesses in the council’s “cumulative impact zone” (CIZ).
The council has tougher licensing rules – even for venues not serving drink – in the CIZ. The zone covers the busiest parts of Brighton and Hove and includes several crime hotspots including for drink-related offending.
Sussex Police licensing officer Claire Abdelkader urged the panel of three councillors – Julie Cattell, Ollie Sykes and Alison Thomson – to refuse the application, saying that it could exacerbate crime levels.
She said that, in the past year, in West Street and within half a mile of the premises, the force had recorded 9,195 incidents including 4,540 crimes.
The top three recorded crimes were theft, accounting for 42 per cent of the total, violence (25 per cent violence) and disorder (12 per cent).
At weekends, violent offences accounted for 42 per cent of all crimes reported to the police, with most of those occurring between 1am and 4am.
Ms Abdelkader said: “We do see (crime) peak between 1am and 2am on Saturday and Sunday but from Friday to Saturday and Saturday into Sunday there is a high level of crime between midnight to 4am which is exactly the hours this would cover.
“There is evidence of a real risk to crime and disorder and the risk that adding more licensing activity into an area that is already extremely problematic could cause.”
Mr Haddad said that the company had extensive experience working in similar zones in London boroughs.
Smacks submitted draft licence conditions, proposing dining in only after 11pm, no takeaways other than deliveries and for registered door staff from 9pm.
Mr Haddad said that additional restrictions could restrict deliveries to residential addresses only – and he said that an earlier closing time of 2am could be considered.
He said: “The applicants are very reasonable and want to work with all the licensing authorities.
“The applicant from the outset has encouraged community transport in regards to deliveries and has worked with local businesses to do litter picks at the end of the evening.”
Councillor Cattell, who chaired the panel, said that she knew some of the places in London where Smacks Hamburger had other outlets – and they were “completely different to West Street”.
She said: “We’ve got a massive concentration of clubs and bars and restaurants so when I’ve been out with the police several times on Operation Marble, which takes place on Friday nights, seeing incidents, seeing fights down there, we stay with the police until probably 2am.
“We get a lot of people from out of Brighton coming down to hit the clubs and I just think it’s horses for courses and there is a reason why we have this CIZ and why we are quite strict with it.”
The panel retired to make its decision which should be made public within five working days.
