Havana extension turned down
Wednesday May 5, 2010
Fulham night-spot Fiesta Havana has been refused an extension to its licence.
Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s Licensing Sub-Committee met on Monday April 26 and voted unanimously to refuse longer opening hours at the Fulham Road bar.
It was the first time the sub-committee have considered an application in the Fulham Broadway area since the cumulative impact policy and saturation zone came into effect in January. The saturation zone covers the Fulham town centre area, which is flooded with pubs and clubs.
The policy makes the presumption that new licenses or extensions to licences would be refused, unless the applicant can demonstrate that there will be no negative impact on the area.
Havana’s had applied to stay open for an extra half an hour each night, until 2.30am, and to sell alcohol until 1.45am rather than its current 1am cut-off. They also wanted to remove a condition that no football shirts could be worn in the bar.
But 12 local residents made objections to the proposals, claiming that a later licence would lead to disturbance and antisocial behaviour in the area.
Charlotte Dexter, of Barclay Road, wrote to the council with stories of people urinating through her letter box, people having sex in the road and fighting in the middle of the street. She said: “As a resident of Barclay Road, I, and all other residents, are victims of public nuisance caused by drunk people exiting premises such as Havana and entering our road to urinate on our footpaths, to have sex in forecourts, to break into cars and to have fist fights in front of our houses.”
Jim Haselup, who has lived in Barclay Road for 27 years, also objected to the extension. He said: “The last few years have been hell due to late night revellers who leave drinking premises in the early hours, particularly at weekends, and use the front gardens of Barclay and Effie Roads as public urinals. The overall state of these streets on a Saturday and Sunday morning could only be described as vile, with vomit and other mess on the pavements.”
But Havana’s operations manager, Rob Pitcher, said that the bar had done all it could to stop drunken antisocial behaviour in the area, going ‘over and above’ what was expected of them in the past year and a half.
He said: “We have changed the focus of Havana’s so that it’s about having a meal, coming to a dance class, and enjoying an evening out. We know that there used to be issues with Havana’s in the past but we’ve worked closely with the police and residents to make things better.
“Initially the majority of complaints we had were from Barclay Road residents, but gradually these decreased to the point where we haven’t had any recently. We’ve helped residents set up a neighbourhood watch scheme, we’ve held meetings with them and resolved most of their issues.”
On hearing the decision, manager Frank Burden said: “Obviously I am very disappointed. We’ve tried to work hard at improving things, and to show that we are committed to the local community.”
