Licence to Grill

On 27 July, I attended a licensing hearing to oppose an application from Pizza go go to trade into the early hours from their unit in Crown Heights.  The applicant was seeking to sell alcohol. 
To their credit, the owners of the Pizza shop were determined to be good neighbours and had already agreed to only serve alcohol until 11.00pm and only when served with food.

My main concern was their application to trade, food sales only, to 2.00am on Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sat.    A lot of work has been done in recent years to discourage late night drinkers from going to Crown Heights.

The Council looked at closing the stairs between the site and Sainsbury's, but couldn't.  The fountains were removed from the 'circle' between the apartment blocks.  The bridge linking Crown Heights to the bus station is closed at night,  a marshalled taxi rank was set up outside liquid to stop late night visitors to the town using Crown Heights as the quickest route to the taxi's at the train station.  All have had some effect and made Crown Heights a better place to live.

The offer of value pizzas at 2.00 in the morning has the potential to undo much of this work.  Added to that is the fear that any future restaurants looking to take units will want equally relaxed rules.  Lets face it when a curry house applies for a licence, they will expect the same freedom as their Pizza neighbours.

I was a lone voice of opposition, however the sub committee did listen to my concerns and made some changes.  The restaurant will close at midnight most nights, they're only allowed 2.00am closures on Friday and Saturday (separate conditions apply to New Years eve).  I wanted more restrictions, but won some concessions.

As I mentioned at the start, the owners were keen to be good neighbours and be part of the community.  Let me know of any problems at the premises and I will talk to them.  I suggested that as they are right opposite the train station, perhaps they should ditch the late night operation and sell bacon butties to commuters in the morning instead.  I am sure the residents would prefer commuters at 7.00 am rather than drunks at 1.00am, they may take more money as well. 

We'll see.

A related update, you'll remember this is not the first time I have been to a sub committee see here.


Well after that hearing, the New Inn appealed and won.  So a bench of Magistrates, not from Basingstoke, overturned a decision made by local people.  I understand a complaint was made about the premises wotyhin hours.  The law needs changing, so local people have the final say.