An attempt by the owners of the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Putney High Street to stay open until 4am at weekends has been rejected by councillors.

The takeaway's owners sought permission to extend their opening hours at a licensing hearing at the town hall last night (Thursday).

If councillors had agreed the scheme it would have permitted the restaurant to remain open until 4am on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

But the application was refused by councillors on the licensing sub-committee who judged that such late night opening hours would cause too much disturbance to local residents.

Committee chairman Cllr Russell King said: "It was very clear to us that these opening hours would probably have a seriously detrimental effect on the lives of people living nearby. The potential for noise created by the takeaway's customers was just not acceptable. We have to judge these applications very carefully indeed and having considered it we were just not willing to run the risk of neighbours and nearby residents suffering significant noise increases that late into the night."

"A victory for common sense ..." was the reaction of one member of PutneySW15.com on the forum when the announcement was made. Many more can be found on the thread.

June 19, 2009