An unauthorised events venue in Newcastle’s West End will have to be converted into a restaurant, after a row with city officials.
Hadrian’s Suite has become the source of local ire in Denton Burn, sparking complaints about dangerous parking and noise from wedding receptions and other functions.
Councillors heard on Friday how the venue, located above the Kwik Fit garage on the West Road and next to a section of Hadrian’s Wall, has been operating for more than a year without Newcastle City Council’s consent and an extension was added to the building without planning permission.
The local authority’s planning committee unanimously rejected an attempt from the site’s owner, the Solomon Group, to gain retrospective approval for the development.
However, rather than being forced to cease operations and tear down the extension, bosses will instead be allowed to repurpose the site as a restaurant – for which a separate planning application was approved on Friday morning.
Benwell and Scotswood councillor Rob Higgins spoke in objection to both possible uses of the site, to which Northumbria Police also objected.
Coun Higgins, who is currently the city’s lord mayor, said he supported local businesses but that they have to coexist peacefully with their neighbours and there was evidence to show that Hadrian’s Lounge was causing “major problems for the area” due to noise nuisance and a lack of sufficient parking to cope with large events.
He also raised the issue of cars parking on the grassed areas around nearby sections of Hadrian’s Wall, “damaging the appearance of what is a world heritage site”.
The Labour councillor said local residents feared that the venue’s owners could still use a restaurant as a space to stage larger functions and accused the applicant of having “ridden a coach and horses through planning legislation”.
Planning consultant Harvey Emms, representing the developer, argued that it was in the council’s best interests to authorise a use for the venue that it could then regulate properly.
The proposed restaurant at Hadrian’s Suite, where plans for a shisha bar were previously rejected in 2020, will have 60 covers and open from 5pm to 10pm daily.
Mr Emms said: “The number of covers is restricted to 60, the occupancies can be controlled, noise can be controlled. It is different from somewhere you can host music events etc. It is a totally different beast all together.”
The planning committee voted by a seven to three margin to approve the restaurant plan, which council officers concluded would be less harmful to its neighbours than a wedding venue.
