Late-Night Delivery Licence Approved For Afghan Restaurant

An Afghan restaurant can deliver food until 4am at weekends after councillors granted the premises a late-night refreshment licence.

Nawab, in Western Road, Hove, was granted the late licence by a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel made up of three councillors.

The panel held a hearing last month but the outcome has only just been published, with Nawab being granted permission to deliver food until 3am during the week and 4am at weekends.

Nawab’s owner, Ahmad Faisal Nasseri, known as Faisal, told councillors that he had no plans to sell alcohol. He can serve food to customers dining in and for takeaway until 1am daily.

Sussex Police and the council licensing team objected to Mr Nasseri’s application for the licence, saying that a late-night venue would encourage people who had been drinking to stay in the area.

Claire Abdelkader, from Sussex Police, said that more than 1,100 crimes were recorded within half a mile of the premises over the past year.

The vast majority were thefts or offences involving violence or breaches of public order – and midnight to 1am was a peak period for offending.

The council licensing team and the police said that the council’s own policy had identified the area as “saturated with licensed premises”.

New applicants were expected to have exceptional reasons or to be able to show that they wouldn’t add to the area’s existing problems.

Mr Nasseri, 41, said that he had operated for seven months without any problems – and he had no links with the previous operators, The venue was formerly Antidote and previously the Back Beat Bar.

The site landlord Ritan Enterprises Limited terminated Antidote’s lease after significant traces of drugs were found during licensing inspections.

Surfaces throughout the venue were contaminated with “bulk” contact levels of cocaine on four occasions – and traces of ketamine and heroin were also found.

A decision letter from the council said:

“As there are no plans to use the outside area, there should not be any additional noise.

“We welcome the applicant’s agreement to the police conditions and the acceptance of a condition requiring the premises to be closed for takeaways and dine-ins after 1am.”

The panel members – councillors Tobias Sheard, Lucy Helliwell and Kerry Pickett – asked for a smoking management plan as part of the conditions.