Milnsbridge locals relieved as cafes bid to sell alcohol until 10pm turned down

On June 25, Kirklees Council’s Licensing Panel met to determine an application from Le Sorelle – a coffee shop at Pickford Street. The shop was already licenced to sell alcohol Monday to Friday between 10am and 6pm, so long as it is consumed indoors.

Business owner, Amy Lambert, had wanted changes to be made to the licence that would allow the sale of alcohol between the hours of 10am and 10pm, seven days a week. On top of this, she hoped to get permission for her customers to drink alcohol outdoors.

The business currently opens from 10am until 2pm Tuesday to Saturday and Ms Lambert told the meeting that she wasn’t planning on increasing the opening hours. She said she wanted the licence to be amended to allow for events to be held and the premises to be hired out for things like baby showers and anniversary celebrations, a few times each month, instead of relying on ‘Temporary Events Notices’ from the council for such events.

Her application was met with 14 objections from locals, and one from Environmental Health, some of whom attended the meeting to voice their concerns.

One resident, Debbie Crosby, said: “Obviously none of the residents are happy about this. Amy’s already got a licence to stay open from nine until six o’clock and to me, for a coffee shop, that should be ample time for baby showers or any other events during the day.”

Lodrick Edwin said: “My family’s lived on Pickford Street for over 40 years, and I think what you have to understand with Pickford Street is that it is young families and on an evening, it’s incredibly quiet. During the day it can be a bit of a rat-run.

“I think if the licence is given, it will impact negatively on residents and what I would say is that there will be an increase in noise, anti-social behaviour, activity, traffic, and litter.”

And Charles Carr told of how the business was already affecting his quality of life and how this would be worsened if the changes were agreed. He said: “I open my front door and there’s people sat there three feet away, eating breakfast. I can’t open my windows now on the front because I can just hear people even now just having breakfast and coffees, and conversation.

“I look out of my window and I can see people sat there, so I’m sure they can see into my lounge as well. I’ve no privacy at all.”

An Environmental Health officer also spoke at the meeting and said: “With the best will in the world, even if people are talking at a reasonable level, when they are out, whether they’re drinking alcohol or whatever, they do invariably talk over each other and increase the volume. And obviously we’ve got a residential property adjacent and other residential properties in the area that potentially could be affected by that.

“I just don’t think we’ve been given enough chance to gain enough evidence – even from the times that the business has been allowed to operate – that it won’t cause a problem during the warmer weather through the Summer.”

Le Sorelle had been granted its current licence in October 2023.

Later in the meeting, Ms Lambert re-affirmed: “Nothing will change with our normal hours, we will remain the same. If it gets busier, then I might reassess my hours but it wouldn’t be all day… I’ve had a few customers who have just requested nine until three but any longer than that is just not feasible for me.

“Coming into it, I always just wanted to be part of the community and never wanted to upset people.”

Ultimately, in making its decision, the panel adopted a stance similar to that of Environmental Health, and refused the changes. Chair of the meeting, Cllr Amanda Pinnock (Labour, Ashbrow) explained: “It’s only been a very short period since the last licensing hearing on October 11, 2023 when colleagues agreed to grant the licence…and not enough time has lapsed.

“We don’t feel as though there has been a significant change in circumstances since that last hearing. Although we’ve heard representations today, we’ve heard limited information and limited data for us to make an informed decision…”