Plans for a new restaurant, with a large dancefloor in Hanley have been refused by councillors at Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

Fears of 'undesirables' and a 'nightclub atmosphere' were presented to the licensing hearing.

Reign Lounge on Hillchurch Street had been hoping to open a new bar and restaurant on the outskirts of Hanley. The venue applied to be open from midday to 1.30am every day, however during the committee hearing they offered to reduce opening hours by 30 minutes.

The venue has said that during live music performances all windows and doors will be closed and sound proofing has been installed. Additionally, on a Friday and Saturday evening a minimum of two SIA door supervisors with a refusals register kept.

Dave Homer, licensing agent, told the committee: "Before applying, the applicants and myself looked at the licensing policy for Stoke-on-Trent and we risk assessed in regards to the licensing objectives. From this we implemented conditions to support the policy.

"We are aware of the cumulative impact policy and how it affects how businesses should be run, however, this does not preclude in any way anybody making an application and we hope we can demonstrate to the committee that they will see what we feel has been applied for is a robust licensing application."

During the licensing meeting it was confirmed that the applicant and their agent met with Staffordshire Police to discuss the application and several conditions were suggested which have been included in the application. The committee were told that the venue will operate primarily as a restaurant with food being available at all times the premises is open.

He continued: "The management team have over ten years of experience in the running of licensed premises, specifically restaurants and it is also the intention, if successful, to train other members of staff to become personal license holders with an overall intention of having somebody on duty who is a license holder, especially during busy times.

"Before concluding, can we point out that no representations were made on behalf of this by the police and any other responsible authority."

Despite representations being made by local residents over other businesses on Hillchurch Street, the agent said that the applicants were not responsible for other premises. The plans submitted for the venue show a dancefloor being available to customers.

Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker said: "It was mentioned that the intended clientele being diners and that food would be available at all times and I just note from the application and the plans that there is quite a large dance floor. With that was said about the music generally being in keeping of that of a restaurant rather than night club kind of music.

"How do those things accord because there's quite a large dancefloor area, would it be envisaged that you would get a lot of people coming in later at night just for that or do you think it could be mostly diners."

The agent responded by saying that food would be available until virtually closing time and therefore it would always be classed as a restaurant. He added that the exact layout had not been finalised and therefore would be subject to change.

However the councillor responded by saying: "I appreciate that food might be available at all hours but that doesn't mean that people are going to go in for food later on at night. So I do have a slight concern with the nature of the area, that is there's quite a large dance floor and bar area compared to the amount of seating available downstairs and upstairs that actually almost, might even be unintentional, it could become more of a night club kind of atmosphere."

Sophie Jabbar, who owns properties at the rear of Reign Lounge commented: " Our concerns are we think it's going to be quite difficult to determine who you let in because you're referring to it as a restaurant but the live music element and the alcohol is a key part of your business. I think somebody attending will not necessarily be eating and not necessarily would you be able to discriminate if it's a couple, it could be two youths.

"When you're in that type of environment you just feel that the loud music will affect our residents late at night and secondly where there is alcohol being consumed we just feel like we're asking for trouble because the fact that it sort of is a little but out of the city centre and I think it will just attract some undesirables as well, which will then lead to problems for us."

The licensing sub committee at Stoke-on-Trent City Council refused to grant the application, with the reasons being made available within five working days. If any party wishes to appeal the decision to the magistrates court they will have 21 days.

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