CONCERNS over anti social behaviour and traffic at a popular food court led to Councillors refusing a late night licence for a doughnut shop.

Bradford Council's Licensing Panel met to decide whether to grant a license to Cha Donuts, based at the food court on Ingleby Road, a license to extend its opening hours to 2am.

Currently the business has to shut at 11pm.

However during the meeting members heard that the food court that the unit is a part of had been subject to a number of complaints from local residents, and that traffic into the site regularly caused huge hold ups on the busy Bradford road.

The business's application had said CCTV and on site wardens would help prevent rowdy behaviour at the unit and lead to better control of traffic.

A similar application to increase the opening hours of another business at the site, Cha Cha Chai, was refused by the panel last month when members heard the area had been plagued by anti-social behaviour, traffic congestion and littering linked to the food court.

Similar concerns about the wider site were raised when members discussed the Cha Donuts application.

Chai cafe in Bradford denied licence to open 24 hours a day

Environmental Health officer Carol Williamson told members: "Environmental Health has been involved with this particular site due to complaints about anti social behaviour."

These complaints had led to a community protection order being issued to the entire site in October, preventing access to the car park for any business between 11.30pm and 7am.

Failing to comply with the notice would be a criminal offence.

She added: "Complaints are still ongoing. People are still trying to get into the site, blasting out their car radios and driving recklessly just to get onto this site. This all adds up to anti social behaviour."

The order will remain in place until complaints stop - members were told.

Councillor Aneela Ahmed (Lab, City) urged members to refuse the licence. She said: "It creates a huge gathering of vehicles which is a major concern. A lot of shops near the site feel threatened. Cars park anywhere and everywhere."

She told members that when she was driving down Ingleby Road the queue of cars waiting to get into the food court left her stuck in traffic for 17 minutes. She added: "Vehicles were just parking on the pavement. Anti social behaviour at this site is a huge, huge concern. The issues surrounding this are are not just going to go away."

She told members neighbouring Lidl had to put barriers on its car park to stop people who were visiting this site parking in their car park and playing loud music.

People had congregated on the site in large groups, even during lockdown.

Members were also told that the only planning permission for the site was for one unit - not multiple units in the one building.

Mrs Willamson said: "That means a couple of these units don't have planning permission."

She said the planning enforcement department was involved in the site.

Noone from Cha Donuts was at the meeting, which was being held online.

Members voted to refuse the licence based, saying it could not meet three key licensing objectives - the prevention of crime and disorder, the prevention of public nuisance and ensuring public safety.