The owners of a long-running restaurant which is set to be turned into student flats say they have been "treated unfairly" by Bristol City Council.
Vincenzo's on Park Street has been run by the Ricci family for 50 years, over which time it has become a Bristol institution with authentic Italian food served at reasonable prices and a homely atmosphere.
But its days are now numbered after a planning application to demolish the building in which it is housed and build student flats in its place was approved by the council.
The Ricci family say it is "disgusting" that this decision was made without a committee and was instead decided by only the mayor's policy advisor, Simon Cowley, considering the restaurant has operated for half a century and livelihoods are at stake.
They think it is unfair the plan to turn the derelict Three Crowns pub in St George into flats will be heard before a committee, after Cllr Asher Craig called it in, yet the plan to turn their beloved restaurant into accommodation will not.
Contradictory information
In an email exchange between owner Isabella Ricci and Mr Cowley on June 16, the mayor's advisor said that the local ward councillor Mark Wright "would have been notified of the application when it was submitted and would have had the opportunity to refer this to committee".
However, Cllr Wright sent an email to Mrs Ricci on June 27 in which he wrote: "I don't recall being sent any correspondence about this planning application, and I have just checked my files and I have nothing in them on it.
"I certainly didn't receive any requests to "call in" this application to ensure that it went to the planning committee."
Cllr Wright also sits on the Development Control A Committee, one of two committees which approves or refuses planning applications in the city.
'It all seems a bit strange to us'
Mrs Ricci, who runs the business alongside her brothers Giuseppe and Raffaele, said: "Whenever there are big decisions such as this one, it should go to committee but this never did.
"We can't understand why it didn't and was instead left to one person. It all seems a bit strange to us and we don't know how just one person can be expected to make such a big decision which will impact so many people.
"If other plans such as the one to transform The Three Crowns into flats are being decided by a committee, why wasn't this one?
"Quite frankly we think the council's treatment has been disgusting and we think we've been treated unfairly. We still don't intend to budge from here - we've been here for 50 years and being told that we can simply get jobs elsewhere is diabolical in our opinion.
"For our local councillor to say he wasn't aware of the plan, despite a senior council member saying otherwise, just shows a lack of care about our restaurant."
Bristol City Council's response
A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “The application was scrutinised by experienced officers but, with change of use to student accommodation allowed in principle at the location and given the ground floor retail unit will be retained, the Development Control committee did not need to consider any issue contrary to planning policy.
“Local councillors are informed of applications in their wards and are able to refer an application to committee, although that did not happen in this case.
“The planning process does not offer any protection to specific occupiers as the relationship between tenants and building owners is private and this isn’t a matter the council has any power over.’’
More information on the plan
The building which houses Vincenzo's, owned by property management company Urbina, is one of the last remaining on Park Street to be redeveloped following The Blitz in WW2 .
In the initial planning application, submitted in November last year, it stated that "the scale and massing of the building is unacceptable and out of character with neighbouring buildings".
When the plan was approved the council said the addition of 19 beds would not contribute to an over-concentration in the wider Park Street area, having consulted a Student Market Report produced by Savills.
The Ricci family argued to developers that their lease runs until 2025 and that they wanted to keep the business going until then, but this looks unlikely.
In total six people will lose their jobs, which is "regrettable" according to the council, but not enough to warrant a refusal.
A total of 17 representation letters were written to the council after the application was submitted with a total of 15 objections.
It is not yet known when work will begin on the development.
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