A fast food restaurant in central Bristol won permission to keep trading until the wee hours - only to be faced with another lockdown.
Eat More Piri Piri in the Triangle is technically allowed to sell hot food and drinks until 4am every day of the week under extended licensing hours granted by Bristol City Council.
But business has been so slow in recent weeks that it is only opening for a few hours a day, according to the owner.
Mubashar Syed applied to the council in November for a licence to sell late-night refreshments until 5am.
Police raised concerns about the application, so it was due to be heard by a licensing committee in December.
But Mr Syed agreed to several conditions suggested by the police so the matter was settled behind closed doors instead of at a committee meeting, according to a council spokesman.
The pemission imposes conditions including that the opening hours of the restaurant would be restricted to between midday and 4am.
It is unclear what concerns the police had as licensing objections are not made public unless they are aired during a public licensing hearing.
The licence conditions require Eat More Piri Piri to install CCTV cameras outside the premises on Triangle South and to keep an “incident report register”.
Mr Syed told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that business had been good late at night when two nearby nightclubs were still open.
“We are very, very quiet now,” he said. “Everywhere is very quiet.”
As with other restaurants, Eat More Piri Piri is allowed to open to sell takeaway and delivery meals and non-alcoholic drinks under the rules of the third national lockdown announced yesterday (January 4).
Mr Syed said the restaurant, which specialises in Piri Piri chicken, uses Uber, Deliveroo and Just Eat to deliver to its customers.
