Scaled-back plans to extend the opening hours of a takeaway restaurant in Southampton are set to be approved.

The application to vary the opening hours in relation to 37 London Road, which is currently occupied by Fireaway Pizza, was first submitted in January 2022.

Permission was sought to change the closing time from 11pm to 3am every night of the week.

However, after a spate of objections during a public consultation and opposition from the city council’s environmental health and crime prevention teams, applicant Mr A Srivastava reduced the extension request to midnight.

While this made the application acceptable to the local authority departments, the application is going before the planning and rights of way panel due to the number of public consultation objections that were submitted.

Councillors have received a recommendation to approve the amended proposal from planning officers when they meet on Tuesday, July 9.

An officer’s report said the site falls within the Bedford Place evening zone with a number of commercial and late-night uses including pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and other live music entertainment venues.

The report said: “The business advertises online that it currently delivers to customers until 2am, hours after the premises closes to customers at 11pm.

“Although customers are not allowed on the premises during these hours, the nature of the delivery use outside the authorised hours would require planning permission itself and, as such, the planning enforcement team has advised the applicant to cease this planning breach.”

The officer’s report added that planning enforcement will take appropriate action if the delivery business continues to operate outside the approved hours.

Nineteen letters of objection were received by the council. Concerns centred around noise and disturbance, and the subject of the business not having a premises licence for late night refreshment, which relates to the supply of hot food and drink after 11pm, was also raised.

The consultation response from the licensing department said an application for a premises licence will be needed if licensable activities are to take place.

Outlining the recommendation to grant the application, the planning officer said: “In summary, extending opening times of the food and drink use by one hour (till midnight) complies with the council’s nighttime economy policy to manage the safety and amenity of the local area, whilst this would have the economic benefit of supporting growth of the night-time economy.

“In relation to the impact from noise and disturbance and the wider impacts of customer dispersal during and after the proposed closing time, the scale and nature of the food and drink use would not adversely affect the amenity of adjoining and nearby residents.”

As a requirement of planning approval, the applicant would need to provide a £5,000 contribution towards late-night community safety facilities as the proposed hours would increase the burden on managing security and safety in the area, the report said.