Extra noise limits have been placed upon an African restaurant and bar in Woolwich town centre after a local resident complained of noise and late-night parties.
Greenwich Council has imposed a new noise management plan on Chichi Dishes at 29 to 31 Hare Street and instructed the premises to install a noise limiter “so as to ensure that no noise nuisance is caused to local residents, or businesses”, after its Licensing Review Sub-Committee convened on January 19.
A local resident applied for the restaurant’s licence to be reviewed because of noise generated by “parties” held at the venue as well as its customers standing outside in the early hours. She told the committee: “They’re drunk, they’re standing at the entrance of the bar and they’re just screaming at midnight, 1am, 2am etc.”
The resident claimed in her licence application that she frequently hears loud music emanating from Chichi late into the night, including one instance where she could still hear a party at 5am and another last August where there were 40 to 50 people standing outside the premises.
She added: “Furthermore, they turned on loud music from their cars parked just nearby on the same road, screamed loudly throughout the whole event and I could also hear the sound of crashing glass bottles.”
Victor Omoke, a member of Greenwich Council’s community protection team which monitors whether business premises are causing public nuisances, said that since the resident started to make complaints about the noise at Chichi, his team had made at least 21 visits to the premises, the most visits to any venue in the borough during that time.
Mr Omoke said the team found the noise levels on these visits to be satisfactory most of the time.
Sophie Okoye, the owner and premises licence holder at Chichi Dishes, said she took the concerns of her neighbours seriously and she “didn’t want anyone to suffer disturbance” because of her business.
Ms Okoye claimed that throughout Chichi’s seven years of operation, not one of the residents who live in the same building above the premises has ever complained about the venue. She also noted, as did members of the committee, that this local resident was the only resident to make representations against Chichi in this case.
In regards to the noise complaints, Ms Okoye said she had introduced strict controls on music volume that both she and her staff adhere to, and she closed the windows and reduced noise levels during later hours. She also said her staff discourage customers from littering, drug use, making noise and gathering on Hare Street once the venue closes.
Ms Okoye also said the August incident “did not reflect how the premises normally operates” and that since then, every private event held at Chichi had strict limits on attendance numbers and noise levels. A police officer confirmed that five complaints had been made to the police in relation to that incident, all of which were made by this same resident, who has asked for the licence to be reviewed.
As well as the new noise management plan and the noise limiter, the committee instructed Ms Okoye to adopt a new dispersal policy. This includes measures to have staff inspect external areas in order to deter customers from loitering outside the venue during opening hours and once Chichi closes.
