An application to sell alcohol 24 hours a day, seven days a week at a New Wortley off licence will be decided by city councillors next week.
Applicant Saqib Ahmed has applied to extend the sale of alcohol at Booze Plus, 33 Tong Road – but West Yorkshire Police have mounted a strong objection to the proposal.
The current hours of selling alcohol are 8am to 11pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 10.30pm on Sundays.
An objection by police says the area already suffers from high levels of anti-social behaviour and disorder and the extension would increase those issues and could attract ‘problem drinkers’ to the area.
The objection adds: “The premises are in a high-density residential area and 24-hour sales would cause unnecessary noise and public nuisance throughout the night to the residents in the area.
“The area is one of Leeds’ top ten most deprived areas and suffers from high levels of substance abuse and the issues that this brings. To allow this application would undermine the efforts being made to address these issues.”
There has also been an objection from a member of the public on the grounds of crime and disorder and public nuisance. And there are further objections from Leeds City Council’s environment protection team and public health.
No public representations have been made by Armley’s ward councillors.
Applicant Mr Ahmed said a supervised CCTV system will be in operation, and Booze Plus will operate a Challenge 25 policy where people who look under 25 years old will need to provide a suitable form of identification.
The sale of alcohol would be from a specific area of the shop which will be supervised by a staff member.
Councillors sitting on the licensing sub-committee at Leeds Civic Hall on Tuesday, 13 September will decide the application. The meeting will start at 10am and the documents surrounding the application can be read in full here.
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