Shop on Otley Run route refused alcohol licence

A shopkeeper has been refused permission to sell alcohol on the route of a notorious pub crawl after dozens of objections from residents.

Khabat Ahmad was not granted a licence for Otley Road Convenience Store in Headingley, despite offering to restrict sales at weekends.

A licensing hearing in Leeds was told that the grocery store was near the start of the Otley Run, which draws crowds of rowdy drinkers every weekend.

One objector, Michael Hurwood, said he had been threatened by revellers and that the area was "super-saturated with alcohol".

Leeds City Council had received 44 letters from people who feared another alcohol outlet would worsen anti-social behaviour.

Tony Clarke, representing the applicant, said: "Mr Ahmad does sympathise with local residents having to cope with this type of behaviour on a regular basis."

The conditions his client offered included not selling alcohol after 13:00 BST at weekends and not selling to pub crawlers in fancy dress.

The Otley Run is a 19-stop pub crawl along Otley Road in Leeds and attracts drinkers from across the country.

Pam Wilson, of Far Headingley Village Society, told councillors partygoers would frequently urinate in public, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

She said: "The Otley Run is already hopelessly, inadequately policed.

"It's one more nail in the coffin of the good reputation our neighbourhood used to have."

Natalie Wells-Russell, who spoke on behalf of Labour MP Alex Sobel and ward councillors, said: "We are the ones who get the complaints.

"And the number of complaints we have been receiving since Covid has shot up."

The council and West Yorkshire Police withdrew objections to the licence application after the reduced hours were offered.

But the licensing sub-committee unanimously voted to refuse the application at a hearing earlier.

Councillors said they were not persuaded the measures offered by the applicant would prevent public nuisance.

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