Bosses at a chicken shop in Reading have gotten cold feet over staying open until 3am after a legal challenge.
Mosaic’s Peri Peri in Wokingham Road, East Reading, boasts a menu of juicy burgers, sizzling wraps, or it signature flame-grilled peri peri chicken.
Earlier this year, the operators Zing Cooperates won a licence to keep on selling food and soft drinks until 3am each night from Reading Borough Council.
The application received opposition from Thames Valley Police licensing officer PC Declan Smyth, accusing management of ‘poor due diligence’, particularly regarding fire safety at a meeting in January.
During an inspection in December last year, of the four fire extinguishers, two were used, and they were stored incorrectly in the kitchen area behind a table and cooking equipment.
There was also no fire blanket located in the kitchen area, and no exit signage in the kitchen or in the rear storage area.
Furthermore, staff were unable to provide access to CCTV on request.
At the time, Bill Donne, the licensing representative for Mosaic’s said the general manager was away looking after his Dad in Pakistan at the time, arguing the circumstances were “unfortunate” and staff now have access to the code.
There were also concerns that the increased hours would cause disturbance for neighbours living in terraced homes.
To that point, Mr Donne argued that the area has become more vibrant with later hours becoming the norm.
Councillors chose to grant the extended hours application at the meeting, with PC Smyth submitting an appeal against this decision to the Magistrates’ Court.
But a council report reveals Zing Cooperates got cold feet over the later hours, and wants to revert back to their current hours of closing at 1am Monday to Saturday and midnight on Sundays.
An email from Tasawar Awan from Godwin Austen, Zing Cooperates solicitors, states: “We have been instructed to withdraw the application and not proceed with the late opening application.
“I trust you will be agreeable to this and will support our position.
“We will, of course, be writing to the TVP as well and at this time separately.
“As long as all parties agree to bear their own costs our client intends to withdraw the application.”
But in an odd twist, district judge Sam Goozée, sitting at Reading Magistrates’ Court, sent the decision back to the council’s licensing applications sub-committee, which must formally refuse the bid to stay open until 3am.
A decision to revert Mosaic’s to its original hours is set to take place at a licensing meeting on Wednesday, August 13.
During the meeting in January, council licensing officer Robert Smalley pointed out that three planning applications requesting hours extensions in January and July 2011 and July 2017 were all refused.
The grant of the extension to 3am was made subject to Zing Cooperates securing planning permission.
