Restaurant row resurfaces

4:56pm Friday 5th September 2008

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A long-running row over an Oxford restaurant's riverside pontoon is set to be reignited.

The Aziz Pandesia restaurant at Folly Bridge has applied to extend its pontoons' opening hours, despite neighbours' objections.

The restaurant was granted permission to open its outdoor area until 9.30pm in 2006 - a concession owner Aziz Rahman won on appeal after a seven-year fight with Oxford City Council.

The authority is estimated to have spent £200,000 on the unsuccessful legal battle to stop the pontoon being used during the evening.

Now Mr Rahman has applied to keep the pontoon open until 11pm.

He said: "My customers are making me aware that they do not like being moved half-way through their desserts and coffee during a relaxing evening.

"It is a real issue when people are on the pontoon during nice summer evenings, because there are not that many of them to enjoy. Some people get upset and may not come back again. Unfortunately, they do not realise that it is not our fault."

Mr Rahman added: "This situation would not arise in any other country in Europe."

He added the last two years showed diners created little noise or disturbance.

But council officers have recommended his bid for extended opening is refused on the grounds that it would be "unneighbourly".

A report submitted to the committee by chief planning officer Murray Hancock said that later use "carries with it a potential for noise and disturbance to local residents".

The report added two complaints about noise had been received two years ago.

The restaurateur said he would appeal if the council area committee did not approve the application next Tuesday. His appeal in 2006 overturned the council's rejection of the pontoon opening in 2004.

John Peachey, 69, of Shirelake Close, on the opposite side of the river, said: "At the restaurant, people said they were happy with a 9.30pm closure and they should stick to that.

"But they just keep chipping away and pushing for more. We have already had to put up with a lot and such a late closure would be terrible in a residential area.

"It would probably mean people still being there at 11.30 at night. After the restaurant goes what would happen then? We will probably finish up with a nightclub there."