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Camden News by TOM FOOT
Published: 18 September 2008

Residents’ fears over McDonald’s licence

Police say chain attracts ‘disproportionate disorder’

McDONALD’S outlets across the borough are disorder hotspots, police have revealed, as they joined forces with residents opposing plans for one of the branches to open “all night”.
Criticism of the American fast food chain was sparked after the Kentish Town branch applied to the Town Hall for a licence to open until 5am.
In a letter written to licensing chiefs, the borough’s top licensing police officer, Sergeant Bob Dear, said the chain’s branches “attract a disproportionate amount of disorder, particularly when allowed to open late”.
He said that last year the Kentish Town Road branch dialled 999 nearly once a week to deal with anti-social behaviour – and that other branches needed emergency help even more often.
“Over the last 12 months there have been a total of 50 calls to the police in relation to this address,” he said of the Kentish Town branch. [It is] a high number for a premises of this type and size although not one that is high in relation to other McDonald’s across the borough.”
Police were called to the Camden High Street branch 60 times last year.
The application goes before licensing chiefs tonight (Thursday).
Rosemary Lewin of the Kelly Street Residents Association warned: “[We] have curbed night-time noise and disturbance to residents by resisting numerous applications for all-night licences.
“The granting of an all-night licence to McDonald’s would drive a coach and horses through this successful approach.”
Hundreds of residents have expressed concerns that revellers leaving late-night venues in the area would end up in McDonald’s instead of heading home and are worried that a 5am finish would effectively grant the restaurant a 24-hour licence. McDonald’s currently opens at 6am and shuts at 1am.
Although politicians have praised A & L Restaurants, who run the branch as a franchise, for their good management, ward councillor Paul Braithwaite said to grant a 5am licence “would be the thin end of the wedge and set a precedent”.
A spokesman for McDonald’s said: “McDonald’s seeks to provide a service that is convenient to the way people live their lives today. Based on our experience of other similar locations, we have every reason to believe that opening for longer at our Kentish Town restaurant will be popular with our customers.”

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