The Licensing Sub-Committee (3) of Westminster City Council met to consider an application for a variation to the Premises Licence for Pirana restaurant, 7-9 St James's Street. The application was granted, subject to conditions.

Pirana Restaurant, 7-9 St James's Street

The committee considered an application for a variation to the Premises Licence of Pirana restaurant, 7-9 St James's Street. The variation would see the restaurant's opening hours extended to 01:30 on Sunday nights, to match its current closing time on other days. It would also see two out-of-date conditions removed from the licence, the addition of a number of new conditions proposed by the applicant, and the addition of some new conditions requested by the committee.

The application was opposed by the council's Environmental Health Service (EHS) on the grounds that the new hours would be outside of the council's core hours policy for restaurants. Two representations from local residents, through their RTM company, were also considered by the committee.

The representative of the EHS, while opposing the application, stated that:

if the variation were granted the risk of Public Nuisance would be minimised.

The residents raised concerns about noise from customers and taxis, but stated that they had not made any complaints to the council. There was some discussion of the restaurant's use of Temporary Event Notices, which have allowed it to open until the later time on a number of occasions since it opened in May 2024.

The committee found in favour of the applicant, but added a number of conditions to the licence. These included a requirement for the restaurant to employ a traffic marshal, for it to only operate as a restaurant during the extended hours, and for a 'winding down' period of one hour before closing time on Sunday nights. They also stipulated that:

On Sunday nights after 23.30 hrs patrons permitted to temporarily leave and then re-enter the premises, e.g. to smoke or make a phone call, shall not be permitted to take glass containers or drinks with them.

The committee stated that they:

expects that there will be more discussions between the Parties to ensure that there is partnership working which will promote the licensing objectives.