A restaurant owner said that a licence review was a “monstrous waste of time” after neighbours lodged noise complaints which have since been withdrawn.
The noise came from an extractor fan at Cin Cin, in Western Road, Hove, and the long-running problem prompted neighbours to ask Brighton and Hove City Council to review the restaurant’s licence.
Since a council licensing panel was adjourned on Wednesday 27 May, the noise problem has been resolved and the complaints dropped.
At a reconvened hearing today (Friday 24 July), Cin Cin’s owner, David Toscano, 48, said that the process had resulted in his personal reputation and that of his business being “dragged through the mud”, with an adverse effect on sales.
Mr Toscano told the panel of three councillors – Julie Cattell, John Hewitt and Kerry Pickett – that the process had been demoralising.
He said that he spent more than a year trying to work with council environmental health officers to find a solution to the noise problem without receiving the technical information that could resolve it.
Mr Toscano made a freedom of information (FoI) request for the technical information that would support his appeal against a noise abatement notice that was issued by the council.
His FoI request was refused but the noise abatement case has also been withdrawn.
He said: “It’s been a monstrous waste of time and cost to me and a significant risk to my business and nothing’s going to happen about that.
“If the only thing that’s going to be done now is the panel are going to decide no action to be taken then that’s the end of it.”
Mr Toscano told the panel that there was “no filter” on the cases taken up by the licensing team and the process allowed for “spurious claims” to be made against his business.
He said: “If I wanted to damage a competitor, I could put forward a claim through this process. No one would stop me.”
Councillor Cattell, who chaired the panel, said that Mr Toscano could make a complaint – but the panel was legally bound to hold a hearing to decide an application to review a licence.
Council lawyer Rebecca Sidell said that, in her legal opinion, the review application was legitimate and the issue had largely been resolved.
The panel retired to formulate their official wording to close the case.
