Moldovan restaurant faces wait to see of booze sale bid will be scuppered by council

Restaurant Moldova, on Great Russell Street, has applied to the council to sell alcohol on the premises and move licensable activities into a second function room at the site, which is currently prohibited.

Councillors on the borough’s Licensing Committee were scheduled to meet last night (December 8) to decide whether to grant an updated licence to the venue.

But the meeting was only brief, as a decision was taken to adjourn the meeting and reconvene on February 2, with the hope that concerns from the council’s end can be resolved.

Veronica Orzea, the sole director of Moldova, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the restaurant is widely used as a wedding venue for Moldovans, Romanians and Latvians who live in and around the town. Guests currently bring their own alcohol.

Presently the venue opens until 2.30am on all days, apart from Friday and Saturday where it stays open an extra hour. Live music is allowed, as are late night refreshments.

But the proposals to add the sale of alcohol and open the second function room face strong opposition from the council’s own environmental health team. A representation from Louise Marshall, a senior environmental health officer at the council, said they were objecting due to ‘public nuisance’ issues and ‘historical complaints about noise’.

Documents which were read by councillors indicate that a noise complaint was made as recently as September.

But now the parties will reconvene in the New Year, after an adjournment request from the restaurant was granted·

Duncan Craig, of Citadel Chambers, was representing the applicant Ms Orzea. He told councillors: “There was a noise report that was done in 2017, and I’m meeting with the author of it on Thursday, and that may bear some fruit.

“It may be that we may make some progress on issues between the two parties. If there are some minor works that need to be made to the premise they can be made also. It will give us a chance to get this application over the line. I think significant progress can be made with the environmental health team.”