Bakery chain Greggs has accepted a deal from a London council which means it can sell hot drinks into the early hours - but not chicken goujons and other hot food.

Greggs opened its flagship Leicester Square store on 18 July. It operates 24 hours a day selling pastries and sausage rolls, which are not considered 'hot food'. 

The Newcastle-based company cannot sell 'hot food' between the hours of 11pm and 5am without a licence, which they applied for under the Licensing Act 2003 in May last year. This would allow the sale of products such as bacon sandwiches, chicken goujons and potato wedges which are partially cooked in shops.

A Westminster City Council licensing sub-committee heard from Police Constable Thomas Stewart, appearing on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service, who said the force opposed the application on the grounds of preventing crime and disorder. PC Stewart said Leicester Square 'had several late-night eateries in the locality and was a focal point for late night revellers'.

The sub-committee rejected the application, concluding Greggs had not provided sufficient reasons as to why the granting of the application would promote the licensing objectives, in a published decision in December last year.

Greggs was due to appeal the decision at Westminster Magistrates Court today, but the hearing was abandoned as the parties reached an agreement.

Cllr Aicha Less, deputy leader of Westminster City Council, said: 'Based on the merits of this case, Westminster have come to an agreement with Greggs that works for everyone. Greggs will now only be able to sell hot drinks (but not hot food) on Sunday to Wednesday from 23:00 hours to 00:00 and, Thursday to Saturday 23:00 hours to 02:00 hours.

'The licence is also subject to significant conditions which includes the installation of CCTV at the premises, the use of door supervisors and the clearing of litter outside the premises. We are pleased to continue to support local businesses and look forward to working with the company going forward.'

Greggs boss Roisin Currie said the hearing had been called off. She told the Evening Standard newspaper: 'We’ve now got an agreement with Westminster -- we’ve reached a compromise. We can still sell all of our sandwiches, all of our sweet products [late at night] but we’ve been working with the council on what we can sell later in the evening. It’s very positive and we’ve worked well together.'

Greggs said it would lay out full details of its deal with Westminster in due course.

 

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