A new restaurant in the former Café Rouge building on Holywell Hill in St Albans will be allowed to serve alcohol until midnight at weekends, the city and district council has agreed.
Councillors on the authority’s licensing sub-committee met on August 18 to decide whether to grant a licence to Moka, an Indian restaurant with existing premises in Northwood.
But the hours will not be as extensive as hoped for by Moka following a raft of complaints from nearby residents about the plans.
Rather than being able to open until 12.30am on weekdays and 1.30am at weekends, the restaurant will instead have to close by 11.30pm on weekdays and 12.30am at weekends.
The restaurant will be able to play recorded music and sell alcohol until 30 minutes before closing time on each day.
The council’s final decision requires a noise limiter to be fitted at the restaurant at a level set by Environmental Health, as well as a member of staff to “carry out proactive litter controls” outside the restaurant twice a day.
The sub-committee, chaired by Cllr Sinead Howland, said they had decided to reduce opening hours by balancing “residents’ concerns with regards to noise nuisance” with “promoting the local economy and facilities offered to residents and visitors to St Albans City”.
Nearly 60 residents had raised concerns about the licensing application, though statutory bodies, including Environmental Health and the police, did not object to it.
Louise Raw, who lives near the restaurant, said that when Café Rouge occupied the building, “we had people peeing in our garden, we had fights in our garden, we had vomiting in our garden”.
She said: “We complained constantly to Café Rouge and the council about noise because when they had music, it was unbearable, you could hear the words of every song.”
Another resident, John Lewis, said the Grade II-listed building – which used to be the Samuel Ryder Seed Hall and has a number of windows as well as a glass roof- was “totally unsuitable” for music and added that it would be “very, very difficult to control the sound coming through that roof”.
Manveer Bisht, Moka’s general manager, said the windows would be double-glazed and that the restaurant “will not be playing loud music”.
He said: “Our intention is not to blast the area; it is just a bare minimum of very soothing music in the restaurant.
“We want to create value in that area, rather than creating nuisance in the area.”
Hildigar Cameron, representing the applicant, added: “It is a restaurant. It is not a nightclub, it is not a bar, it is a restaurant.
“It is a very respectable place.”
Covering Hertfordshire’s district and borough councils.
