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ED Miliband
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Minister’s fears over late-night booze licence
WHEN a high-flying government minister splashed out £650,000 on a new flat in Primrose Hill, he might have been expecting a quiet retreat from the hustle and bustle of Westminster.
But Ed Miliband, a trusted adviser to chancellor Gordon Brown, has been shocked to learn that the empty shop at the bottom of his new block is to become a late-serving off-licence.
Now he claims his “quiet enjoyment of his home” is under threat and that he shouldn’t be made to live above a wine shop.
Mr Miliband bought his pad in Chalcot Road in October but less than six months later he has found himself in the kind of row that has been played out hundreds of times at the Town Hall since government licensing reforms were introduced two years ago.
Applicant Cengiz Un wants to open Chalcot Wine in a former hair salon, offering alcohol everyday from 8am to 11pm.
He said that he would “discourage noise from patrons arriving at, queuing, or departing the premises by displaying polite notices for customers’ attention”.
Mr Miliband argues that a new off licence will encourage teenagers to take part in underage drinking and could lead to an increase in nuisance behaviour.
As a director of a resident management company overseeing the flats, his name appears on a letter of objection filed at the Town Hall.
The protest said: “As residents within the building the noise nuisance of deliveries day and night will have an adverse impact on our abilities to have quiet enjoyment of our homes.
“There is also no control that the proposed licensee will have to prevent street noise from patrons leaving the premises late at night.”
It added: “There are a lot of teenagers in the area and the siting of an off-licence risks acting as an encouragement to under age drinking. There are four shops licensed to sell alcohol five minutes walk away in Regent’s Park Road, so there is clearly not a need for more premises selling alcohol.”
Mr Miliband is a former pupil of Haverstock School who studied at Oxford before entering politics and being elected as MP for Doncaster in 2005.
His brother David Miliband, the government’s environment minister, lives in a nearby street.
Primrose Hill has been one of Camden’s key licensing battlegrounds since fixed opening hours were scrapped with residents going as far as the courts to fight late licence applications.
Licensing chiefs are due to make a decision on Chalcot Wine tonight (Thursday).
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