Owners of Harrogate restaurant ask council for permission to allow outdoor seating until 11pm

The restaurant offers Spanish cuisine from the Andalusia region and opened on Cold Bath Road in 2016 after moving from a smaller premises on Royal Parade.

La Feria, which is the trading name of Whaddya Know? Ltd, had a temporary licence for outdoor seating until 11pm last summer which owner Jeremy Verity would now like to make permanent.

Currently, customers are allowed to sit outside until 9pm.

The building was previously a pub for many years and was known as the Old Tradition, the Honest Lawyer and the Iron Duke.

Councillors on the licensing sub-committee will meet on Friday in Harrogate to consider the application.

The application has received three objections from residents living near the restaurant who all say it should be refused due to noise.

One person said: “We have a young family and it is important that we are able to live in a peaceful residential environment.

"If the restaurant was operating as they intended with their new application, we would not have purchased this house.

"It will significantly impact our peace and quiet and the ability of our young child to sleep.”

Mr Verity wrote in the application: “We are currently permitted to use the terraced area in front of the restaurant until 21.00 because of an environmental protection condition on our license which prohibits us from using the terrace between 21.00 – 11.00.

"We would like to remove this condition to be able to use the terrace until 23.00 from Monday to Saturday.”

“Realistically, this will only be during the summer months, from April to September, during the lighter evenings.

"We have successfully operated the terrace area in previous summers until 23.00 through the use of Temporary Event Notices (TENS) and would now like to formalise this activity if possible.”

The meeting will take place at 2pm on Friday at Harrogate’s Civic Centre and will be streamed live on YouTube.