The Licensing Sub-Committee of Southwark Council was scheduled to consider an application for a new premises licence for Food Rules, 5 Westmoreland Road London SE17 2AX. Councillors were also scheduled to be asked to make a decision on whether to move into a closed session to discuss confidential information.

Licensing Act 2003: Food Rules, 5 Westmoreland Road, London SE17 2AX

The sub-committee was scheduled to consider an application for a new premises licence for Food Rules, 5 Westmoreland Road, London SE17 2AX.

The application, from Ammigo Limited, was for a licence to sell late night refreshment from 23:00 to 05:00 every day, with opening hours of 12:00 to 05:00 every day. The application described the business as:

“Rectangular shaped building, serving Deliveroo, Uber and justeat, pre-ordered via their website”.

The application was scheduled to be considered after representations were made by the Council's Environmental Protection Team and the Licensing Team.

Representation from the Council's Environmental Protection Team

The representation from the Environmental Protection Team objected to the application on the grounds that the proposed hours fell well outside those recommended in Southwark's Statement of Licensing Policy 2021-2026 for restaurants in residential areas, and that:

Takeaways are not considered appropriate for this area.

The representation also noted that the application was in direct contradiction to the planning permissions for the premises. Planning permission for the site was granted in 2018, with condition 5 stating that:

The A5 use¹ hereby permitted shall only be permitted to operate between the hours of 11:00 - 23:00 on Monday to Sundays.

The representation concluded that the Environmental Protection Team would withdraw their objection if the applicant agreed to reduce the proposed hours to 23:00 every day, and agreed to conditions designed to address their concerns about noise from the kitchen, staff and delivery drivers.

Representation from the Council's Licensing Team

The representation from the Licensing Team objected to the application on the grounds that it sought:

excessive hours

and recommended that conditions be added to the licence to mitigate the impact of the late night refreshment.

The Licensing Team's representation included suggested conditions relating to staff training, noise, signage, ventilation, and a prohibition on playing music at the premises. It concluded that:

Although takeaway premises offering the provision of late night refreshment are not considered appropriate for residential areas, if the applicant agrees to all of the above conditions we believe any risk regarding public nuisance would be negated.

If the applicant agrees to all the above conditions then we will withdraw this representation.

Discussions between the applicant and the Licensing Team

The report pack included an email from a director of Ammigo Limited, Sukhi Sushil Kumar Bala, to the Licensing Team, in which they discussed the conditions that had been proposed. Mr Bala agreed to some of the conditions, and explained why he would have to refuse others.

Exclusion of Press and Public

The sub-committee was scheduled to be asked to consider whether to exclude the press and public from the meeting in order to discuss confidential information. The agenda stated that the following motion should be moved, seconded and approved if the sub-committee wished to exclude the press and public:

“That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1-7, Access to Information Procedure rules of the Constitution.”