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You are welcome to make your own submission. They will need to be emailed by midnight tonight.

 

I, and those people listed in this document, wish to oppose the applications made to Haringey Licensing by the restaurant operators at 43 and 44 Grand Parade, Green Lanes, London N4 1AQ. I will outline the reasons for our opposition below.

Public Nuisance

Firstly, we would like to make clear the exceptional nature of this application as it relates to residents of the Grand Parade, Roseberry Gardens and Duckett Road.

In the 0.8 mile stretch of shops and restaurants widely regarded as Harringay Green Lanes (Endymion Rd to Frobisher Rd), there are 50 corner premises which abut a residential street. Of these, just 9 hold licenses for alcohol or Late Night refreshment. This is not indication of a lack of such licensed premises in the area. According to the most recent Register of Licenses available online (07/02/13), there are 44 (non-retail). What it indicates is that historical development of the area has tended to keep such premises away from residential properties.

Should these two licenses be granted, it would create the ONLY residential street in the area with two such late night establishments on either side of its junction with Green Lanes. Ducketts Road would also be the only road in the area with two late night establishments on its opposite corners.

These two applications could result in a 22% increase in the number of residential street corners in the area being dominated by a Late Night restaurant.

Given the geography and layout of the area concerned, we believe the Committee should take note of the impact these decisions could have on the two streets mentioned.

As the Gardens streets are at the bottom of the elevated Ladder roads, there is a prevailing wind which channels litter, pollution, and noise into them. These are already issues for the Gardens streets but the granting of these applications would materially impact on and further damage the wellbeing and amenity of the residents of Roseberry Gardens.

The noise impact from these Late Night establishments comes in many forms. The day-to-day operation of such premises requires deliveries, collections, the use of high-powered extraction fans and flues. Then there are the customers who, due to legislation, are required to smoke outside. Their talking and shouting creates a serious nuisance to residents in the area.

The noise issue is further compounded by the nature of the businesses. It has been acknowledged by the Harringay Traders Association that the area’s “USP” has become food and drink in the past few years. The customers they want to attract are not resident in the area. They drive to Green Lanes to eat.

The Gardens area is their parking lot of choice. This is due to its permeable layout (unlike the awkward one-way system of the Ladder), and the very accommodating CPZ (ending at 6pm). The noise of customers arriving by car late at night - stereos booming, car alarms being set off, doors slamming etc - and then returning to their cars is significant (even on the Ladder Roads). The demography of Roseberry Gardens, in particular, means that a higher than normal percentage of the elderly and the very young would be impacted by this nuisance.

Then there is the inability for residents to even find a carpark near their homes after 6pm.

The premises at 43 Grand Parade currently has Planning permission to open until 11pm.

Whilst we accept that, as laid out in Haringey’s Statement of Licensing Policy,

9.2 …there is no legal basis for the licensing authority to refuse a license application because it does not have planning permission.

We believe that Section 9.3 provides for the consideration of the Planning Officer’s opinion in restricting the opening hours to 11pm.

 9.3 The Licensing Authority will give appropriate weight to relevant Planning decisions and to the views of the Planning Authority on the compliance of the application with the licensing objectives.

The Officer’s condition of closing time speaks directly to the objective of preventing public nuisance. In the report, the officer states that

The use hereby permitted shall not be operated before 1000 or after 2300 hours the

following day, each day.

Reason: This permission is given to facilitate the beneficial use of the premises

whilst ensuring that the ameniities (sic) of adjacent residential properties are not

diminished.

The definition of ‘amenities’ includes both the tangible and the intangible. Noise nuisance is the most obvious and intangible impact that the restaurant would have. Particularly for the many households living directly above, behind and across from the restaurants.

Pollution and litter are other problems that are directly related to the proliferation of Late Night restaurants in the area.

Again, the geography of the area and nature of the restaurants (predominantly, a similar cuisine based around grilled meats) mean that there is often a strong odour and thick pall of smoke that settles over the Gardens on less windy days. The addition of more flues pumping the mix of charcoal and fatty meat odour into the area all hours of the day and night can only further impact on the amenity of residents. That these restaurants also provide takeaway meals results in huge amounts of paper and food litter being strewn along the residential streets. Customers will often eat in their cars and dump the litter out of the door. Others will eat on the street, leaving their waste behind.

Finally, there appears to be a widely-held belief in the area that all shops in Green Lanes have the “permission” to open until 2am. Suggesting an “everyone else can, so why can’t we?” approach to licensing applications.

Sadly, this is the view being presented by some of the area’s representative groups. A view which has hindered residents making submissions on these applications.

I find that this assumption has no basis in fact, or in Haringey’s own licensing policy.

Paragragh 19.4 of Haringey’s Statement of Licensing Policy states that:

Fixed trading hours (zoning) within designated areas will not be set as this could lead to significant movements of people across boundaries at particular times seeking premises opening later.

Moreover, referencing the latest available Register of Licences, of the 44 premises with Late Night Licences (excluding retail) along Green Lanes, only 22 are for operation beyond 1.30am on weekdays and 30 for the weekends.

So 50% of the Late Licenses along Green Lanes end before 1.30am on weekdays.

I suggest that these two points nullify the argument that any additional public nuisance caused by the granting of these licenses will be negligible.

The granting of these licenses would create a significant increase in the volume of people on the streets in the early hours and contribute to a de facto creation of ‘zoning’.

Prevention of Crime and Safety

The intersections of Roseberry Gardens and Duckett Road with Green Lanes have a history of crime ranging from prostitution to drug offenses, muggings, assault, and public disorder.

After efforts from residents and law enforcement, many of these elements have been removed and the streets are now relatively quiet and peaceful. The creation of a Late Night ‘hub’ flanking both sides of the intersection will undoubtedly see the return of a criminal element.  This is usually manifest in the residential sections of the street, away from the shop fronts of Green Lanes.

We trust that the Committee’s consideration of this and other objections to these license applications will be proportionate to the extraordinary nature of the case.

Each of the applications will have a serious and material impact on the amenity of local residents. Compounded, they will destroy the peace and tranquility of the adjacent residential roads, and push Green Lanes further toward becoming a one-dimensional Late Night venue for non-residents.

Regards

the undersigned.