Cafe trading without licence for eight years faces closure

Published on Thursday 11 September 2008 10:06

A CAFE faces being closed down after it emerged it has been operating without a licence for eight years.

The Baguette Bar on Leith Walk has traded since 2000 but councillors have now been advised to shut it down because it only has permission to operate as a retail outlet.

Council chiefs decided to take action after a third enforcement investigation visit in five years forced the owner to submit a retrospective planning application. It is unlikely this will be accepted and he may be forced to close the doors.

The application will be treated even more strictly because it falls within the Leith Conservation Area. But owner Hadi Saleh told the Evening News he had run it without any problems for nearly a decade and that instead of being a cafe it was in fact a snack bar – despite it having more than 70 seats.

He added that it was a cafe when he took it over. He said: "I have to say I am very surprised by this. I have had no letters or anything about this. I've been here for eight or nine years, I got the place as a cafe, and never heard anything.

"I wouldn't even call it a cafe, it's a snack bar. When they (the council] have been round before they have told me that they are quite happy with what we are doing."

Policy surrounding shop fronts in the cafe's stretch of Leith Walk dictate that no more than a fifth of them can be non-retail, and already the percentage is around 36 per cent. If formal permission was granted to Mr Saleh, 50, that would jump to 45 per cent – another reason why it is unlikely permission would be granted.

However, Mr Saleh argues that he has run the venue well since its opening and there is no reason to change that.

The council's head of planning and strategy Alan Henderson said: "The unit is currently being used as a cafe; this use is unauthorised. The application was lodged following an investigation by the enforcement section of the planning function. The use is already in place.

"It is recommended that the committee refuses this application and initiates enforcement action in relation to the unauthorised use."

The retrospective planning application is to change use of 255-257 Leith Walk from retail to restaurant/cafe/bistro use.

Under further plans a massive external smoke duct – or flue – running the whole height of the building would be created at the rear of the building, which planners said would be out of character with the residential feel of Leith Walk tenements and may have an adverse impact on neighbours, adding smells, noise and vibration.

As a result of that the rear door leading to the back green would also be blocked with a concrete facade, which planners added would be completely unacceptable.