West Street restaurant Chong Qing applied for a license to close at 3am instead of the current time of 11pm, which they have successfully received, despite objections.
Peter Sefton, chair of the city centre’s residents’ organisation ‘Changing Sheff’, said: “We see this seemingly innocuous application as a trojan horse with major implications for residential areas in the city centre.”
The restaurant is on the border of the ‘night time quiet area’ of the city, and objectors to the application said that allowing it would extend the disruptive night-time economy further down West Street and into residential areas.
The main concerns Mr Sefton raised to the council were the potential increase of delivery drivers outside people’s homes, increased noise late into the night and drunk people being attracted further down West Street.
The restaurant owners assured the council and residential community that they will not allow the sale or consumption of any alcohol on the premises, they will request customers are quiet on leaving and deliveries will stop after midnight.
On these conditions, the application to extend Chong Qing’s opening times was accepted and the restaurant will now be opening for dining in until 3am.