The manager of a pizza and kebab shop in Kendal has been ordered to pay thousands of pounds in fines and costs, for breaching rules limiting his opening hours.
Planning restrictions on Pizza Italia, on Allhallows Lane, Kendal, mean the shop can only open until 11:30pm Sundays to Thursdays, and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
However, enforcement officers from South Lakeland District Council found the shop to be open and serving customers as late as 2.30am.
Magistrates in Kendal heard that Pizza Italia manager Fatih Arap, of Union Street, Kendal, had already been served with an enforcement notice in August 2014, requiring him to stop opening beyond the hours allowed under the planning regulations.
The enforcement notice was appealed, but it was upheld by a government inspector.
Mr Arap continued to serve customers out-of-hours and on one occasion on the 5th of April 2015, was observed to be still open at 2:30am.
At Kendal Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (5 April), he pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the enforcement notice, which is a breach of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, that between 18 February 2015 and 17 August 2015 he allowed members of the public to be served after 11:30pm on Sundays to Thursdays and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
24-year-old Mr Arap was given credit by the magistrates for his early guilty plea and was fined £1,200 for the offence, and was ordered to pay the council’s legal costs of £1,590 along with a victim surcharge of £120.
Nicola Hartley, the solicitor prosecuting on behalf of SLDC, said: “Planning restrictions on opening hours are different according to the location of a business and its proximity to residential properties.
“In Pizza Italia’s case, it is in the middle of the conservation area in the centre of Kendal and is close to residential properties.
"The planning restrictions are there in the interests of the amenity of the area, to limit the impact from noise and late-night disturbance on the neighbouring residential properties.
“The council had already warned the manager about the shop’s late opening and had served an enforcement notice, which was then upheld on appeal, so prosecution was a last resort when the breaches of the planning restrictions continued.
“The council will always seek to work with businesses to stay within the rules but we also take very seriously our responsibilities to protect people’s quality of life and protect the conservation area.’’