‘Not appropriate’: Residents’ complaints fall short as Goodge Street diner wins approval for extended opening hours

Diners will be able to pick up fast food at an American-style fast food eatery until 2am despite residents’ fears about noise.

Cheatmeals opened in Fitzrovia earlier this year and asked to extend its hours from 11pm until 2am from Monday to Saturday and until midnight on Sundays.

There are 11 branches of the franchise and five have late night licences.

Residents of the diner on Goodge Street spoke of their fear of noise if it was allowed to stay open late.

Clive Henderson from the Charlotte Street Association said: “A late night takeaway is not appropriate for this relatively small and intimate street.”

He explained there are many flats above ground floor retail units and said the takeaway “will be winding up when the street is winding down”.

He said: “This is simply not an appropriate use for a takeaway on Goodge Street.”

Residents were concerned that there were cars parked on the pavement on the opening night in October.

There were reports of supercars, or sports cars, parked outside.

Yasin Allam, Cheatmeals director of operations, said staff try their best to make sure customers do not park on the pavements.

He said the opening party was a private event that ended at 10pm to avoid disturbing the neighbours and also had security staff on duty.

Resident Lou James said nightlife ends early on that side of Oxford Street.

She commented: “Opening our windows in the winter, let alone the summer, is going to be untenable if it goes on until 2am.”

Another resident, Andrew Smith, said his family was already disturbed by lights from the eatery and feared late night disturbance.

“We’re very much aware of what goes on at night,” he explained. “Lighting of the premises is very, very bright, it does shine into the bedrooms and that’s an issue for extended hours.”

Cheatmeals lawyer Sarah Clover said the business is “respectful of its neighbours” and there had been no complaints.

She said the incident with the supercars appeared to be a “one-off”.

Clover pointed out that the licensing authorities described the area as “vibrant”, which seemed at odds with residents’ views.

She said the licensing committee could always review the situation if there were problems and that the current opening hours up to 11pm was good practice for later hours.

“If people are going to be rowdy, that will have been seen already.”

Allam said he expected footfall to be low late at night and most business will be deliveries.

Clover said residents’ concerns were about what they thought might happen and stressed takeaway delivery companies expect drivers to avoid disturbing residents.

“Lighting is not going to wake anybody up,” she added.

The licensing committee approved the extra hours and insisted that silencers and acoustic ceiling insulation is installed to cut noise from the extractor fan.

The eatery must also do a risk assessment after two months to see if it needs door security staff.