Enfield Council’s licensing committee heard concerns from police the Green Lanes venue’s late opening would create “serious and unacceptable risk”, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Avenue Club 2 in Green Lanes, Bowes Park (credit Google)

Councillors have refused to extend the opening hours of a restaurant and bar in Bowes Park after concerns were raised by the Metropolitan Police.

Enfield Council’s licensing committee spent 45 minutes considering the request from applicant Denis Gjelaj, who operates Avenue Club 2 in Green Lanes.

Councillors refused permission for the extension after inspectors raised concerns over compliance with licensing objectives, particularly the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, and prevention of public nuisance.

Currently, Avenue Club 2 opens at 9am daily and closes at 11pm Monday to Wednesday, 1.30am on Thursday and 2.30am on Friday and Saturday.

The new closing times proposed were 2.30am from Sunday to Wednesday, 3am on Thursday and 4am on Friday and Saturday.

However, during the hearing, Suna Hurman, who chaired the meeting yesterday (Wednesday 9th), said the venue had already been operating “outside of its current licensed hours”.

Metropolitan Police officer Derek Ewart said the police strongly objected to the proposed hours as they would cause “serious and unacceptable risk in the police’s view to the licensing objectives”.

The venue is in a ‘cumulative impact zone’, meaning the area is heavily concentrated with licensed premises. PC Ewart said approving the application risked increasing the “noise impact” and people at “various levels of intoxication” on the streets.

The officer said there were 139 residential properties nearby, including some directly above the premises, but the application showed “no awareness” of this.

Noel Samaroo, Gjelaj’s representative, said his client didn’t know what representations were going to be made at the point of submitting and “sometimes you can’t please everybody”.

He said: “Normally there’s time to mitigate representations and that generally works well […] but sometimes when you’re dealing with residents it’s a much more difficult situation.

“To add conditions just because we’ve had certain representations wouldn’t be right. So we’ve tried to walk this fine line of putting in an application to give you [the licensing committee] confidence but, on the other hand, we don’t want to over-condition it so the operator then doesn’t have any flexibility to run his business.”

As well as the police, council officers and a local resident also made representations to the committee.

Chair Suna Hurman asked why the venue had “so many” security guards on Fridays and Saturdays. On these days the venue employs five security guards, two by the door and three inside.

Samaroo said: “It’s not because there’s trouble, there hasn’t been any, maybe that’s because there’s five supervisors there. Having worked with other premises who don’t invest the money into proper security, they can have problems. We have the right number of people to make sure the venue is securing the main areas.”

Hakema Lasmi, the council’s senior licensing enforcement officer, said after searching the venue on Google, there wasn’t a website or “much information on how people can book [a table] or see menus”.

Clarifying that customers could call to book a table, Samaroo said: “It’s very much a pre-booked operation, it’s mainly filled with people who have been there before, but I don’t want to make it sound like it just for one community, it’s just not something they advertise like a run-of-the-mill restaurant.”

However, the committee was unconvinced and refused permission for the extension of opening hours.

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