Licence decision awaited by new restaurant

THE OPERATORS of a new restaurant will find out whether it can have a licence to stay open until 2am.

A building on White Abbey Road, in Bradford, is currently being renovated in preparation for it becoming a new restaurant.

A planning application to convert the former Melbourne Hotel building, which has most recently been used as a furniture store, into a restaurant was approved by Bradford Council last year.

Next week a licensing panel will decide whether to grant a licence to the venue to serve food and play recorded music until 1am on Monday to Thursday and 2am from Friday to Sunday.

The application, by Olivia Gardens Ltd, says there will be 38 CCTV cameras around the venue.

Four people have written to Bradford Council raising concern about noise the business might generate.

A decision on the licence will be made at a meeting of the Bradford District Licensing Panel at a meeting on May 10.

When the planning application for the conversion was submitted to Bradford Council in late 2020, it said the owners hoped to turn the “dilapidated” building into “a thriving business with progressive business owners who will inject the investment needed to bring life back into the building and thereby the local area”.

Meanwhile, a city centre restaurant has been granted permission to keep a large outdoor marquee on its car park until October 2023.

The marquee was set up next to Jinnah Restaurant, where Leeds Road meets East Parade.

However, the structure was built without permission, and Saleem Akhtar submitted a retrospective application.

That application has now been approved by Bradford Council.