'I don't want a headache': Peterborough restaurant manager withdraws request to stay open until 3am after campaign

A Peterborough restaurant’s application to stay open until 3am has been withdrawn after a campaign opposed turning it into a "nightclub".

Manager of Bucharest Coffee and Restaurant in Lincoln Road, Millfield, Thomasz Demski, says he stopped pursuing the application because he "doesn’t want a headache”.

After the application's submission in March, campaigners Millfield Action Group collected signatures on a petition claiming the restaurant “will turn into a nightclub in this residential area” if approved. The group says their petition was signed more than 150 times.

Leader Abid Hussain said that he can “only assume they’ve pulled the application because they had a feeling it would get thrown out”. He added that he believes it's likely it'll be re-submitted.

Mr Demski said he “really doesn’t know” at this stage whether or not it will be re-submitted again. He also said that he believes the campaign against it was “about politics and the elections” and that “maybe it was the wrong time to put the application in”.

Local elections will be held on Thursday, 4 May and the petition was presented to two previously-elected PCC councillors outside the Town Hall late last month.

But Mr Hussain insists that the campaign "has nothing to do with politics”.

“We’re taking action for the area,” he said. “We don’t really care who’s in power.”

“The two councillors that helped us, one was from the Labour Party and one was Independent so they’re from separate parties,” he added.

“If we’re not going to ask those guys for help, who else are we going to ask because they’re the ones that have been voted in. They’re there, they’re paid to do the job, so surely we should be asking them.”

Mr Hussain clarified that the councillors’ help came in the form of guidance and advice on how they could oppose the application.

Local MP backed campaign

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow (Conservatives) has also met with Mr Hussain and publicly shared support for Millfield Action Group’s campaign.

In a letter he wrote to PCC’s chief executive Matthew Gladstone and shared online he wrote that granting the later opening hours would “amplify the suffering of local residents”.

Mr Hussain says that he specified he would not be photographed with the MP during their meeting because “elections are round the corner, so I didn’t want people thinking that we’re only doing this because of that. I don’t want an association with that.”

Mr Bristow is not up for election this year, but one of the councillors involved in helping the group with their campaign is.

Because the campaign took place in the pre-election period, PCC said that it couldn’t accept Millfield Action Group’s petition from the councillors involved in person but confirmed that Bucharest Coffee’s application would be determined at a future licensing committee.

However, this is no longer necessary now the application has been withdrawn.

If granted, it would have meant the restaurant could sell alcohol until 1am on Sunday through Thursday and 2:30am on Friday and Saturday, with the restaurant closing at 3am.

Mr Demski denies that the later hours would have turned his establishment into a nightclub.

Before withdrawing the application, he said he didn't think a few extra hours would "affect anybody".