RESIDENTS plagued by rowdy behaviour near a Kenilworth take-away have welcomed a decision to revoke its late night licence.
Warwick District Council has ordered Kenilworth Kebab House, on the corner of Warwick Road and Queens Road, to close early to stop drunks disturbing people nearby.
Councillors made the decision last week after a review of the take-away was called by police following a string of complaints reporting noise, nuisance and anti-social behaviour.
It means the shop must now close at 11pm each night instead of 1.30am.
Complaints were also made about customers being served hot food out of hours. Under its original licence no food was to be consumed off premises after midnight.
Jacob Johnson, aged 56, who lives nearby, said: “It’s about time. There have been problems for over a year. I blame the people going out, getting drunk and making a nuisance of themselves because they have nothing better to do.
“Half the time I don’t think they even want any food. Shutting early hopefully means people will go elsewhere and stop disturbing us.
“I understand when people go out and get drunk, they get loud. I can tolerate that sometimes but it’s happened too often here and a lot of the time it’s not just them being noisy, they can be aggressive too.”
Vanessa Little, 34, who also lives nearby, added: “If the take-away has been serving food later than it should have been, they’ve only got themselves to blame.
“The place just seems to attract trouble. Probably because I think it’s one of the only places that does open so late, it means people automatically go there after a night out.
“I’m glad something’s been done because it can be quite intimidating around there. I wouldn’t like to go there, especially at a weekend.”
A third resident, who asked not to be named, said: “I sometimes wish the take-away wasn’t there at all. I use it occasionally but never late at night. It can be like running a gauntlet to even get there, you could easily get caught up in something.
“I imagine closing early won’t be good for business but if it makes this area a nicer place to live and makes it safer and stops all of this, then I’m glad.”
A council report to last week’s licence review hearing stated: “Warwick District Council has captured CCTV images of persons entering and exiting the premises after midnight on numerous occasions.
“The footage clearly shows on one occasion males leaving the premises with packages after midnight and discarding paper wrappers from the takeaway food onto the pavement.”
David Davies, licensing services manager at Warwick District Council, said: “Three councillors from the licensing committee made the decision.
“The decision was taken mainly because the take-away broke the conditions of their licence on several occasions by serving food later than they should have been.
“They can’t serve food after midnight, but clearly were even after being interviewed by police about it.
“Police asked for a review and presented CCTV evidence showing this and revocation was the decision taken.
“I would think the police will be very pleased with this as they asked for the review and the revocation and that’s what they’ve got.
“The take-away has 21 days to appeal the decision. If they appeal, it will be heard by the magistrates’ court who can decide to uphold the decision made by the council, reject it, add conditions to it, or ask the council to rehear it.”
No-one from Kenilworth Kebab House was available for comment as the Times went to press.
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