Chicken shop refused opening hours extension

An application to extend the fast-food restaurant's opening hours has been rejected

A chicken shop has been refused permission to open later after residents said they were "under siege" from noise created by late night customers and homes were "engulfed" by its smell.

Pepe's Piri Piri in Woodbridge Road, Guildford, applied to extend its closing time from 23:00 BST to 00:00 between Sunday and Thursday, and to 01:00 on Friday and Saturday.

Guildford Borough Council received 18 letters in opposition and rejected the application on Thursday, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Applicant Muhammed Malik told the licensing meeting many customers were key workers looking to get food after late shifts and had requested the restaurant opened later.

The shop, in Woodbridge Road, backs onto residential properties.

The owners had applied to extend its closing time from 23:00 BST to 00:00 between Sunday and Thursday, and to 00:10 on Friday and Saturday.

'Late night revellers'

A neighbour called Lindsey told the meeting: "Permanent residents have had enough of being under siege by the noise created by late night revellers."

Another said he was “pushed” to object to the application because of the noise workers would make closing the store.

One resident said they could only open their windows while the shop was closed, otherwise their home was “engulfed by the smell” of cooking.

Councillor Catherine Houston said the number of complaints about the applications had set "alarm bells ringing".

The owner of Pepe's said it had not "realise[d] the problems" before making the application and had tried to address them.

He said in the last two weeks he had told employees they cannot talk loudly after 10pm or take the rubbish out past 9pm.

He said he and had taken measures to improve the parking.

Councillor Keith Witham told the applicants the refusal offered them “a chance to show you can work with the residents and resolve the issues”, then consider re-applying.

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