A restaurant being created in Churchtown in Southport is keen to secure longer opening hours so it can welcome more diners to enjoy the new venue.
Work is currently taking place to upgrade and reopen the former Boxtree Nurseries café at 192 Cambridge Road, next to the roundabout and on the junction with Manor Road.
Planning permission has already been granted to extend and improve the building with owners now seeking agreement from Sefton to extend the opening hours.
If granted, they would become:
The proposed opening hours would be:
Monday to Thursday – 8am-10pm
Friday to Saturday – 8am-11.30pm
Sunday – 8am-10pm
A planning statement has been submitted by Cockwill & Co which says: “The existing café business is on the ground floor of a two storey property and has recently been extended in accordance with planning permission. The first floor of the property is a residential flat and is owned by the applicant along with the ground floor café.
“The property is located on the north west corner of Cambridge Road and Manor Road, a busy roundabout junction close to the two Churchtown local centres.
“Externally there is a small outdoor seating area to the Manor Road frontage and gardens to the remainder.
“The café has been operating until the recent construction works for the extension, however, with the increased indoor capacity and the upgrading of the style the premises the premises will be more restaurant style operations with a meet and greeter, policing the entering and leaving of the premises the owners are seeking to operate longer hours on a Friday and Saturday night catering for diners who would like to arrive and leave slightly later.
“The owners already have a Premises Licence to serve alcohol from 08:00 until 23:00 on Sunday- Thursday and from 08:00 until 23:30 on Fridays and Saturdays with the premises closing 30 minutes later.
“Following the previous refusal to vary the opening hours to match the Premises Licence under planning an application was approved with earlier closing hours of 22:00 on Sundays to Thursdays and 22:30 on Fridays and Saturdays and an earlier opening of 08:00 on a Sunday.
“The premises operated within these restrictions without complaint showing that the business integrated well with its surrounding residential neighbours. Following the upgrading the applicant considers that in order for the business to remain viable the restaurant requires the ability to have a more flexible weekend trade two cover turnaround in the evening, thereby having dinner settings at 19:00 / 19:30 and 21:00 / 21:30 and therefore the minimum closing times need to be two hours later. The meeter and greeter would be able to make sure customers leave in a quiet manner thus not impacting on neighbours.
“The extension to the property also reduces the outdoor area, therefore also reducing the number of outdoor diners but this still has the 22:00 hours curfew.
“There are no third party residents on the premises, the flat above the restaurant is controlled by the applicant and is likely to have an on-site manager reside in it.
“The restaurant will contain around 30 covers inside and 20 outside. This is similar to the previous operator.
“The use of the property as a café has already been established that it is an accepted use in the residential area. The extended hours proposed does not intensify the use it merely prolongs the time the business is open and this is accepted in many situations across the borough where particularly public houses are in residential areas or close to residential properties in non-residential areas. The two nearby Churchtown local centres contain residential properties, next to and above bars and restaurants.
“The proposal is justified as there is no longer a separate flat above the café that could be affected by the proposal and that similar applications near residential properties have been approved for similar hours by Sefton Council.”
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