Restaurant on Marmion Road granted longer hours

Yesterday the owner of Gisors Restaurant on Marmion Road won the right to increase its trading hours, including the sale of alcohol, until 10pm on Sundays and 11pm for the rest of the week, despite concerns from neighbours about noise and security.

Portsmouth City Council's licensing committee also approved the venue's new layout with the bar at its entrance and removed the condition that a personal licence holder and CCTV operator must be on the site at all times.

Christopher Hamm, who lives in the flat above Gisors, formerly Lucile's Crepes, attended the meeting to share his fears. He said: 'My concern is that I can hear music from 4pm going boom, boom, boom. And then I can hear the refrigerator coming on and off through the night. Because of this I am getting broken sleep. I don't want this to affect my job.

'On Fridays I have gotten to the point of staying with my partner. I won't be forced out of my flat.'

He also believed longer operating hours would lead to anti-social behaviour. 'The 11pm closing time is an accident waiting to happen,' he said.

His landlord Charley Whitmore agreed. She added: 'Chris has been there for four years and this is the first complaint I have ever had from him. It's also the first I've had a complaint in the 18 years I've owned the flat.

'I just think the mental health of my tenant is not great because of this. At the weekend he has to live somewhere else. He's being pushed out of his home.

'Knowing that end of the road it's likely everyone from Palmerston Road might think "let's pick up one for the road from here." So we might get big rowdy groups around there.'

Speaking on behalf of Gisor's owner, Charles Tourres, solicitor Jon Wallsgrove said: 'The music is kept to background level and it doesn't interrupt conversation in the restaurant. So the "boom, boom, boom" that is being referred to can't possibly be right.'

He explained that the application came from a need to make money.

'Mr Tourres is running a business now that is on the brink,' he said.

'He is doing this so he can continue to employ the people he does and to be an asset to Portsmouth, rather than have another empty business on the street.

'He took the restaurant on from his sister as she was struggling financially.'

Mr Tourres agreed that the venue's rooftop terrace would close at 5pm and open again at 10am the next day in a big to cut down on noise.