Burger bar's late-night opening bid rejected

The Burger and Sauce restaurant at the corner of Kings Heath High Street and Grange Road in Birmingham had been opposed by 10 residents, Councillor Lisa Trickett and the city council’s environmental health team.

The restaurant currently opens from 2pm to 11pm but had been seeking to open from midday to 3am.

The business shortened its hours applied for, with late-night refreshment ending at 2am and recorded music until midnight.

A licensing sub-committee has given approval for the restaurant to serve until midnight on Friday and Saturday only, with recorded music ending at midnight on Friday and Saturday and 11pm on weekday nights.

Residents has said there had been antisocial behaviour outside the venue – a former Argos – and pictures of “illegal parking” had been submitted with objections.

Councillor Trickett had said it had a “form of management that is utterly inappropriate to the late-night opening of a venue that could easily become a food and fight magnet for people leaving late-night pub openings”.

Speaking at the hearing, applicant Munwar Hussain said there was no evidence of antisocial behaviour and nothing had been reported to the business or the police.

He added: “If there were such issues, I am sure the police would have objected and they probably would be sat with us today.

“There is no record of us breaking any of the licensing objectives.

“Given this I feel the claim is slightly baseless because we are not breaking any of the licensing objectives. I don’t think this is fair.”

He said there was no application to sell alcohol, only background music would be played and that several neighbouring businesses were operating past 11pm

He said the business needed to operate longer hours to survive and that opening later would also help staff provide for their families.

An environmental health officer said none of the nearby takeaway restaurants were operating past 12 midnight with one exception.

He said: “The nature and character of that area is residential and commercial to a certain extent but no so much late-night commercial.”

He added that operating until late at night would have an impact on the four apartments being created above the former Argos – immediately above the restaurant.

Councillor Trickett said the application was part of a “push” to transform the area into a “night-time economy” and that it was the start of a “slippery slope”.

She said: “What has to be a concern is such applications as this […] start that push of again changing the purpose of an area from a mixed economy that serves a local community to a night-time economy.

“There are families in the properties in the flats above the shops in that block.

“There is no other café or restaurant in that vicinity that is open so late.”

She said there are always “three to four” parked cars outside the restaurant which block the pedestrian and said she questioned the capability of managers of the business in dealing with the problem.

Meanwhile one nearby resident said there had been an increase in antisocial behaviour and that car horns and revving were regularly heard.

He said he had previously failed to drive into Grange Road because of cars parked blocking the entrance to the road.

The sub-committee concluded that 2am was too late to open but that midnight was acceptable on Friday and Saturday nights and 11pm on other nights.