'Noise will be intolerable': Pizza shop refused 5am opening hours
Pizza shop refused permission to operate until 5am
A pizza shop has been refused permission to operate until 5am over concerns it would create a disturbance for people living nearby.
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A Wakefield Council licensing sub-committee rejected proposals to extend the opening hours at the Papa John’s outlet on Horbury Road after hearing how residents had previously been impacted by noise.
Ten objections to the proposals, including one from the council’s environmental health department, were submitted following the application by Magnum Trading.
The premises currently has permission to operate between 10am and 11pm.
Two residents who attended the hearing at Wakefield Town Hall described how people living on Gill Sike Avenue had regularly been disturbed by late night noise.
They also told the committee that residents had previously been threatened by customers after complaining about their cars blocking the street entrance.
Resident Geoff Tingle said: “The noise will be intolerable. At the moment it does all calm down at about 11 o’clock.
“The reason why we moved there is that it is a quiet residential area and that’s what we want to retain.”
Environmental health officer Chris Morse said: “I believe an extension until 5am undermines the licensing objectives of the prevention of public nuisance and is unlikely to cause unreasonable noise disturbance.
“The surrounding area is predominantly residential.
“All nearby businesses currently close by midnight, including the Whinney Moor pub, two takeaways and a petrol station.”
Mr Morse said the council’s anti-social behaviour team had recently received a report of people urinating outside the business.
Jashan Bhullar, representing Magum Trading, said the company had “done a lot of work” to address previous complaints made since the business opened in 2022.
He said the application had been made to enable deliveries to be made to customers’ homes rather than to serve food on the premises.
Mr Bhullar said three drivers would be working for the business at any one time.
He added: “All the staff are trained in how to deal with public nuisance.
“We have 24-hour CCTV already on site.
“We won’t allow groups of customers to come in all at the same time and we will make sure that drivers know to keep it down when entering and leaving.
“We do take on board everything that has been said and any issues that have been raised.
“I was under the impression there were no more issues.
“If anything is not working, we’re happy to adjust and change that.”
Announcing the decision, senior legal officer Paul Jaques said: “Whilst the applicant has identified steps in the operating schedule and sought to manage out the issues with additional conditions, the committee do not consider this will alleviate the concerns that have been raised and consider granting this licence would cause likely impact on the public nuisance licensing objective.”