Sam's Waterside Faces Battle Over Opening Hours

Nearby residents opposing late licence

Sam's Waterside restaurant is close to opening

September 29, 2023

The new restaurant set to open in the Brentford Project development is facing a battle with its neighbours over licensing hours.

Sam’s Waterside at 6 Brent Way, which is owned and managed by Sam Harrison, is currently in the final stages of fitting out. It is directly across the road from Sam’s Larder, a café deli, which is already opened.

Initially the restaurant applied to serve alcohol to midnight during the week and to 12.30am on Friday and Saturday and 11.30pm on Sundays.

This prompted five objections from residents of the newly completed flats above the premises.

All of the objectors stressed their support for the restaurant venture but were unhappy about the late opening which they believed would result in noise and late-night public nuisance.

One said, “Once this phase of the development is complete, there will be many people in the area and an extended licence will be very disturbing to us residents who get up early in the morning for work, etc. and need to sleep.

“We are looking forward to Sam’s opening and believe it will be a great addition to Brentford, but we also believe that standard opening times are sufficient and for special times, they can obtain a special permit.”

Another pointed out that noise from the building works ongoing could be heard in their flat, therefore it could be assumed that they would be disturbed by restaurant customers late into the evening.

One of the agreed conditions of the licence would be, “No noise generated on the premises, or by its associated plant or equipment, shall emanate from the premises. Nor shall any vibration be transmitted through the structure of the premises which gives rise to a nuisance.”

More than one of the objectors pointed out that Sam’s Riverside in Hammersmith shuts at 9.45pm in the evening.

In response to the objections, the applicant’s solicitor asked for a letter from Sam Harrison to be distributed to the objectors. This stated, “My business partner Fanny & I want to assure you that we are committed to living in a community where everyone is happy and see us as a
benefit of living at The Brentford Project not a challenge. Fanny and I will always be contactable in the very unlikely event that something untoward would happen. In many ways historically we have found ourselves guardians at our sites and the surrounding areas.

“The last thing, we will do is cause a public nuisance. In our history of trading none of the 4 criteria outlined by licencing have been breached in anyway including your objection of public nuisance. It’s important to establish we are not a pub we are a high-end restaurant with a bar.
We very much want to be the corner stone of the development, as an independent restaurant we are passionate about being embedded in the community. and we have been working out how we can make this happen and remain financially viable at the same time.”

The letter goes on to propose reducing the licenced hours by half and hour with last orders on Sunday brought forward by an hour and a half.

The objectors refused to accept this compromise with most of them arguing that the restaurant should have the same opening hours as its sister restaurant in Hammersmith.

The borough Licensing Panel is due to meet on Monday 2 October to decide on the application.