A Quayside pizzeria has won the right to serve booze later into the night, despite clashing with furious neighbours.
Councillors have backed Scream for Pizza’s plans to extend its licensed alcohol sales hours from 7.30pm to 10pm and to allow takeout customers to purchase cans of beer and wine too.
The popular foodie destination opened a new venture on the Newcastle Quayside earlier this year, expanding from its restaurant in Sandyford.
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But it soon came into conflict with its new neighbours, who argued at a Newcastle City Council hearing last week that the business had “made a mistake” with the move and warned of a spike in drunken antics if the new licence was approved.
However, those concerns have now been dismissed after the local authority’s licensing sub-committee sided with the pizzeria.
Sarah Kilby, Scream for Pizza’s operations manager, said: “I’m really, really pleased that we got it. I know the objectors said that this was an extra thing that we did not need, but ultimately it adds something more to the business and will hopefully make us more viable.
“Hopefully it will help to push us in the right direction once Covid has gone too.
“People want to be able to sit and have a pint with their food, so being able to service alcohol later should help with our evening trade.”
Solicitor Sarah Smith, representing Scream for Pizza at last Tuesday’s hearing, sought to reassure neighbours that it was a quality restaurant and “absolutely not” a typical takeaway pizza chain.
But objector Paul Callaghan, a former chairman of One NorthEast and the NewcastleGateshead Initiative, told the committee that the alcohol extension was a “step in the wrong direction” and had “universal opposition” from members of the Blue Anchor Residents’ Association.
He added: “The Quayside is a special place. It has been developed over the last 20 years and is the most visited area in Newcastle, the views from the Quayside are the most photographed in the city.
“We are trying to protect an area which has been harmed by people who are drinking on the Quayside.”
Victoria Featherby, one of Scream for Pizza’s founders, said she “did not expect this torrent of objections and misinterpretations of what we are trying to achieve”.
