Horsham Cafe Hours Extended

A Horsham café has been given permission by the district council to extend its opening hours.

Chez Polie, in The Boulevard, opened in December 2024 but applied to make some changes, including staying open to 6pm on Sundays.

During a meeting of the district council’s licensing sub-committee on Thursday (July 31), members agreed that the café could open from 9am to 6pm Sunday to Wednesday, and 9am to 9pm Thursday to Saturday.

Currently it opens from 8am to 5pm Monday to Wednesday, 8am to 8pm Thursday to Saturday, and 9am to 3pm on Sundays.

Applicant Karen Polie said:

“When we first opened, we thought we would only want to be open until 3pm on a Sunday, so that was what we put on our licence application – slightly naively, not realising that it might have been better to have put a bit later until we saw what the business was.

“On a Sunday now we close at 3 but we have quite a lot of unhappy customers who would like to come in and have tea at 3.”

The council received two objections to the changes, though one was later withdrawn.

The committee heard from a residents whose flat is ’12 to 15 feet’ from the café. He raised concerns about public nuisance – mainly relating to noise – especially the extra hours on a Sunday.

Ms Polie said the noise was monitored, particularly on the patio outside the shop, with people being asked to keep it down if they got too loud.

She added:

“We are respectful of the fact there are flats above our unit – we don’t want to cause any trouble.

"We’re there for the community, and a large percentage of the community are very happy that we’re there.”