Leeds City Council has blocked a family’s plan to hold a baptism party until the early hours of the morning over fears it would have disturbed neighbours.
The family, who are originally from Romania, had wanted to host a do at the Premier Banqueting Suite in east Leeds until 5am across October 16 and 17. The council’s environmental protection unit had objected to the plan and said there’d been numerous complaints about noise coming from the venue, which is used for weddings and family gatherings, since it opened a decade ago.
A licensing hearing on Wednesday heard baptisms in one of Romania’s Christian churches typically take place at midnight, with a party held afterwards.
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But despite the applicant, Alexandru Florin Petrechiuta, offering an earlier 1am finish to counter the concerns, a panel of two councillors effectively banned the event from carrying on past 11pm.
Speaking on behalf of Mr Petrechiuta, Florin Marius Bran told the hearing: “We promise to lower the music after 11pm so we don’t disturb the neighbours.
“In Romania, where we come from, a baptism party carries on all night. They will drink, and eat and then at midnight they will baptise the kid and then celebrate afterwards.”
Mr Bran said around 80 to 100 people would be expected at the party, which would have started on a Sunday night and carried on into Monday morning.
But Elizabeth Hebbert, from the council’s environmental protection team, said that the venue had a history of complaints from neighbours about late-night noise.
She told the hearing: “The most effective way of minimising the noise is to avoid holding events as late (as this), to minimise disturbance to residents at a time when they’re likely to be sleeping, or they’re more likely to be sensitive to the noise.
“We feel we’ve a duty to object because of the late finishing time. I understand there’s a cultural element to holding the event late on, but the applicant does have the option of holding the event somewhere else if they wish to celebrate later.”
A panel of two city councillors upheld the objection, stating that they could not be sure disturbances wouldn’t “occur again” at the premises.
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