A cafe bar along a busy road in North Bristol wants to open for longer to ensure it can survive. The Blue Lagoon on Gloucester Road, Bishopston, has submitted a planning application to have its opening hours extended.
At the moment, the cafe bar is open until midnight Sunday to Thursday and until 1.30am on a Friday and Saturday.The venue is looking to extend its opening hours to 1am Sunday to Thursday and 2.30am on Friday, Saturday and Bank Holidays.
It also wants to be able to have its outdoor seating area open until 11.30pm. The documents describe the application as "a modest request", but say they would "go a long way to ensuring that the business survives".
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it states: "This area has very high levels of existing background noise levels due in part to it being a main entertainment, food and drink hub positioned on the main Gloucester Road as well as being one of the main routes into and out of the city.
"The area as a whole is considered to be fairly noisy and already established as a late-night area for several decades and beyond, so uses such as this support the existing late-night economy rather than encourage new users into the area. The existing and intended customers are already within the vicinity of the premises and this modest extension of hours sought merely offers an extended period where people of all ages can socialise and enjoy themselves.
"In terms of any noise concerns, the premises have successfully operated within the existing hours of operation and are generally controlled by the existing set of controls of both planning and licensing regimes. There have been no complaints in this regard.
"Music is played on the premises, and all doors and windows are kept shut except for access and egress at this time. The as applied for increase in hours of operation by 1 hour on a daily basis should not be seen as controversial to extend the current position as the premises is already within a late-night area and the modest increase will only really be felt at the weekends when it is to be expected."
The documents go on to describe the Blue Lagoon as a "long-standing food/drink and live entertainment premises" which has become "an essential part of the Gloucester Road community". It says the Blue Lagoon adds to the "vibrancy of the area and Bristol as a whole".
They also say the increase in hours would "go a long way in ensuring the business survives".
"The premises have traded for the past 14 years under the current planning conditions but faced, like many other food and drink business, over the last few years, a challenging period of trading and now wish to ensure that the business can successfully continue in the face of both socio and economic difficulties," it continues.
"The modest increase in hours which is ought will, in the Applicants opinion, go a long way to ensuring that the business survives."
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