A chicken takeaway near Reading town centre with a rocky history has applied to keep on selling food and drinks until late at night.
Pepe’s Piri Piri at the corner of Oxford Road and Zinzan Street has been open since October 2019, within easy walking distance of the town centre.
The chain has a menu of 100 per cent halal food, wings, chicken portions, lamb and beef burgers, vegetarian paneer options and more.
But the franchisees of the chicken shop have been in clashes with Reading Borough Council over cooking odours coming from its extractor system and planning compliance.
Neighbours had previously complained about smells coming from the takeaway, with a resident of Zinzan Street, claiming that fumes that smell of ‘burning animal fat’ had wafted into his living room and bedroom had created “a horrible environment to live in”.
These statements were made in 2022.
At one point, a man said his pregnant wife was “throwing up constantly into a bucket” due to the fumes.
Meanwhile, the council’s planning team issued an enforcement notice as conditions of the building conversion from a Ladbrokes betting shop into a takeaway from a consent in May 2018 had not been complied with.
The business was temporarily closed in April 2022 to resolve the issue with the extraction system, reopening later that year.
At the time, a spokeswoman for Pepe’s stated the company wanted to do everything in accordance with the council’s demands.
The planning concerns related to the appearance of the shopfront and the suitability of the kitchen extraction system.
The dispute with council officials continued until January 2024, when planning approval was granted for the details of the extraction system and a changed shopfront.
A planning agent for Pepe’s stated: “The restaurant provides a family-friendly dining experience with family seating areas and healthy grilled food, as part of the new healthy style of living, something which was limited in the area and is very successful.
“The changes fit within the existing building fabric, improved the aesthetical appearance of the building, and attracts customers while at the same time offers a modern interior and exterior appearance that sits comfortably within its context.
“The changes to the existing building are very successful in this vicinity, which only adds as a positive project to help bring up the surrounding area.”
Pepe’s Piri Piri is currently open from 11am to 11pm each day.
Now the operators have applied to the council for a late-night refreshment licence to keep on selling hot food and soft drinks until later at night.
A licence would allow them to keep on selling food until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, and 1am from Sunday to Thursday.
A statutory consultation into the application is currently live. You can comment by emailing licensing@reading.gov.uk.
The deadline for representations falls on Wednesday, June 3.
