Chinese restaurant plan gets up nose of residents

Residents of a tower block in south-east London have objected to a Chinese restaurant opening in the building because "the type of food served" is an "extremely pungent cuisine".

Chinese restaurant Jincheng Alley wants to open a branch in a ground-floor commercial unit at the new Forbes Apartments, part of the Royal Arsenal Riverside development in Woolwich.

Kitty Luan, the owner and operator of Jincheng, applied to Greenwich Council for a premises licence, which would include the sale of alcohol and playing of music.

In a written representation, one resident said the smell of the food could be considered to go against the licensing objective of the prevention of public nuisance.

The resident went on to describe Sichuan food as an "extremely pungent cuisine".

Another local person said that Forbes residents were not against the idea of a restaurant on the ground floor, but objected to Jincheng because of "the type of food served and cooking methods which pose a fire risk".

She said she was also concerned about the presence of food delivery vehicles, late-night footfall and "general customer disturbance".

Ms Luan's legal representative at the meeting, Marcus Lavell, said the unit "was always going to be something like a restaurant".

"With a licence, you are looking at shorter operating hours, you're looking at greater controls as to where staff go and how they manage customers on dispersal," he said.

He also said Ms Luan hoped that the restaurant's "primary customers" would be Forbes residents themselves.

Mr Lavell added that none of the concerns raised affected the licensable activities of selling alcohol and playing music.

The licence application received no objections from police or the council's environmental health department.

Jincheng Alley already has one restaurant at 43 New Oxford Street in the West End.

Greenwich Council is due to make a decision on the licence.

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