Wellingborough Road cafe wins bid to sell booze until late but is barred from using outdoor area

Bar Cafe Milano, opposite the Spread Eagle pub, opened in June and its owners wanted to extend its licence to sell booze until late. Members of Northampton Borough Council’s licensing committee granted that request when it met at The Guildhall last Wednesday (September 18).

It will add to the cafe’s current offering of freshly ground coffee, breakfast and all-day food menus and snacks.

Three neighbours had objected to the application, with one writing: “The cafe is already causing a nuisance to local residents. Most evenings if residents walk up to that area, it is full of cars parked by customers of the cafe on the double yellow lines, there are large groups of males sitting and standing outside smoking and it can be quite intimidating for residents when walking past.”

Although the representations from neighbours were not enough to persuade the councillors to reject the alcohol licence, they were taken into account when the councillors refused the cafe’s use of a piece of land behind the venue, which it had converted into a seating area for customers.

The cafe argued that it had received permission from the landlord to use the outdoor area for seating, but the land was actually owned by the council itself. An estates officer at the authority had written in to oppose the application ‘in order to prevent public nuisance’.

And it was on that basis that the venue was barred from using the outdoor area until it had a planning application granted. The extended licence, however, will see the bar shut its doors at 11.30pm, half an hour after it stops selling alcohol.