Neighbours’ concerns after one of the world’s fastest pizza makers sought to sell alcohol with meals from his takeaway provoked the council to take a look at the convenience store next door instead.
Vijay Kumar Chauhan was part of a three-man UK team who scooped the title of Domino’s Fastest Pizza Makers in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2010.
He began running a pizza takeaway shop in Whitehall, Bristol, in July last year, and moved into the flat upstairs with his wife and daughter, a licensing committee heard.
The small shop Pizza Box, on the corner of Whitehall Road and Congleton Road, did not sell alcohol at all and closed at 11pm.
Then Vijay applied to Bristol City Council for a licence for the shop to sell alcohol and hot food until 2am every day.
He told a licensing hearing on Thursday (February 11) he wanted to offer meal deliveries past 11pm and promised that alcohol would be sold with “substantial meals” only.
Deliveries past 11pm would be to a fixed address only, he said, not to people in their cars waiting outside.
And the alcohol for sale - beer, wine, lager and large bottles of spirits - would be stored in a cupboard out of sight and not advertised outside, he said.
But seven neighbours objected to the application, and two told the licensing committee they feared it would mean more noise, light pollution, cooking smells, pests, anti-social behaviour and traffic accidents.
Ms Green from Congleton Road said she was speaking on behalf of members of a WhatsApp group for residents of Congleton Road, Stretford Road and Stretford Avenue.
She said they all shared concerns that families, “especially young children, babies, key workers”, would be kept awake by the bright headlights, blaring radios, slamming doors and idling engines of delivery drivers.
There were also risks for “public safety” and more traffic collisions given there were existing problems related to the sale of nitrous oxide from the 24-hour shop next door, she alleged.
“We’ve got a lot of anti-social behaviour issues with people buying it from the store, and parking on those roads and consuming it late at night, and they’re then driving off under the influence," she said.
“If there’s increased traffic, and there are people under the influence that we’re already aware of, there’s just an increased chance that there’ll be potential collisions.”
Vijay said he could control the behaviour of the two delivery drivers on his staff and could tell drivers from Deliveroo and Uber Eats to park on Whitehall Road not Congleton Road or any of the other residential streets in the area.
But Natalie Lewendon, also a resident of Congleton Road, said she was “not convinced” Deliveroo and Uber Eats drivers would follow his instructions, and that the off-licence next door was a “bellwether” for issues related to alcohol sales and driver pick-ups late at night.
Vijay responded by promising he would only use his delivery drivers after 11pm.
He told the hearing he used to be a manager at Domino’s, was once crowned one of the world’s fastest pizza makers, that Pizza Box recently gained a five-star food hygiene rating, and he employed a pest control company to visit every week.
“I would like to live with my neighbours over there,” he said. “I want to work with them, because my daughter is ten years old...I know if the takeaway will cause some problem with noise nuisance [or] anything, she can’t focus on study.
“If any neighbour has any complaint they can directly approach me.”
None of those at the meeting said they were aware of any complaints made against Pizza Box to the council or police.
Licensing practitioner James Leahy, who spoke on behalf of Vijay, said his client was a “very experienced operator” with a “good character” and it would be unfair to “punish” him because of long-standing issues with the convenience store next door.
“It would be wrong to penalise Vijay’s application for the misdeeds of somebody else,” he said.
The licensing committee granted the application, noting alcohol can be sold by “delivery only” under current coronavirus restrictions.
Chairperson, councillor Barry Clark, said: “The committee was not presented with any evidence that persuaded it to refuse the application, and conditions mitigate the concerns raised around public nuisance.
“Just to say, if you have got problems, you raise them and we can review the [licence].
“Also, I wanted to say, we’re directing [a licensing officer] to speak with the neighbourhood enforcement team with reference to the off-licence next door, because we believe, from what you’ve raised today, there’s issues there that should be being looked at.
“We’re going to have a word… about reviewing them and seeing what they’re up to
“We believe that’s what’s causing quite a bit of your issues and that shouldn’t be happening.”
