A vision to breathe new life into a once popular Lowestoft restaurant has been given a boost after a licence was granted.
Plans to put the former Shish restaurant, in Esplanade, back to use took a step forward as East Suffolk Council's licensing sub-committee granted it a licence on Monday morning.
It was revealed that applicants, Elizabeth Holdings, are looking for tenants to reopen the building as a pub and restaurant.
The application heard was for a licence to serve alcohol from 11am to 2pm from Monday to Saturday and 12pm to 12.30am on Sunday.
The sub-committee heard that relevant hours matched the licence of the previous tenants, Shish.
Richard Taylor, for Elizabeth Holdings, said the only reason it was applying for the licence was because it had not been aware that Shish had dissolved after closing in 2019, and the licence had lapsed.
"This is an important point as in no way was the licence revoked after complaints," he said.
Mr Taylor said the applicants had worked closely with police and environmental health to set out conditions which the new tenant would have to adhere to.
These include having CCTV, a Challenge 25 policy and door supervisors working on a Friday and Saturday night.
There must also be no noise audible outside the premises from 11pm.
However, the sub-committee also heard from neighbour Chris Broadley, who said he was concerned he would see a repeat of anti-social behaviour that had previously taken place when the venue was licensed.
"I want a business on that road but the concern is drinkers," he said.
"We used to have glasses thrown over on to our side and on to the promenade, and that was with these exact licensing times in place.
"I never had an issue with Shish either. I just think an 11pm drinking up time is reasonable, it doesn't have to be so late."
Colin Hedgley, sub-committee member, said he understood Mr Broadley's concerns, but that if the conditions were met the times were reasonable.
"If there are problems you can talk to the police and they can bring them back to us, but until that happens, we can't do anything about it," he said.
Mr Taylor said Elizabeth Holdings had been talking to various potential tenants about the building, but could not move forward without the licence in place.
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