Northampton newsagents apply to open 22 hours a day but councillor and residents raise concerns

Disgruntled residents have hit back at plans made by a Northampton newsagents to extend its opening hours.

Owners Kandiah and Vasuki Rajarathnam have applied to the council to be allowed to sell alcohol from their shop 22 hours a day, seven days a week, by extending its opening hours from 5am – 3am, daily.

The Cyver Stores owners currently sell alcohol and open daily between 6.30am to 12am. But residents in the Booth Lane North area have complained about the behaviour of shoppers and an increase in rubbish being left in gardens. Some claim the shop is a “constant problem” blighting the area.

West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) licensing sub-committee will be asked to make a decision on the application at a meeting on Wednesday, April 19. Northamptonshire Police have made no comment on the application but 26 residents and a WNC councillor are against the changes.

The shop has been allowed to open from 6.30am until 12am since 2010. But one resident claimed the application permitted by the former Northampton Borough Council showed the authority “did not care about the people that live close to this shop”.

Councillor Jamie Lane, who represents the Boothville and Parklands ward, said he worried extra noise would cause residents distress. He said: “I feel the noise that will be generated by this extended licence will cause distress to local residents. There is no appetite for a store of this nature to be open so long in this residential area, which is mainly elderly and young families.”

Another resident said shoppers often visit the shop late at night with “loud music blurting from open car windows” while another said the shop was a “constant problem”. The applicant says if the proposal is successful then “prominent signs will be displayed requesting customers to have regard for local residents when leaving the premises”. “Adequate bins are available for customers to dispose of litter,” the application added.

WNC’s licensing committee will hold their meeting online to decide on the application at 10am.

Cyver Stores and the agent were contacted to comment.