Villagers take court action in drinks row

Jan 24 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

ANGRY villagers yesterday began a court challenge to a council’s handling of a controversial drinks licensing application for a £1m restaurant built near their homes.

Almost 80 people in Ponteland objected four months ago when the owners of Ristorante Fratelli applied for a premises licence for the 200-seat Italian eaterie above the village’s new Sainsbury store in Bell Villas.

They claimed the licence meant the restaurant would effectively double as a pub for up to 90 casual drinkers and be out of place in an area where most residents are elderly.

Despite their protests, the application was approved by Castle Morpeth Borough Council’s licensing sub- committee at a 90-minute hearing.

Now incensed local residents are asking magistrates at South-East Northumberland Law Courts to order the borough council to hear the application again.

Yesterday the case was adjourned by magistrates in Bedlington so that the council’s licensing officer and Coun Kay Morris – who chaired September’s licensing sub-committee meeting – can appear at a full hearing.

Retired university lecturer Dr Colin Campbell, who lives next door to the new restaurant in Cecil Court and is leading the objectors’ appeal, said there were several grounds for challenging the original hearing.

These included Coun Morris’s decision to allow the objectors’ four official representatives just two minutes each to outline their case and ration them to one question each to the applicants.

There were also concerns about the chair’s conduct of the meeting and a faulty PA system which prevented those attending from hearing the proceedings properly.

Helen Lancaster, Castle Morpeth’s legal and scrutiny officer, said: “I firmly believe that the residents had a fair hearing.’’