New city centre shop in Peterborough granted alcohol licence despite resistance from BP garage

A new city centre shop has been granted a licence to sell alcohol, despite resistance from employees at a nearby BP garage.

Uni Off Licence, at 32 St John’s Street, was granted the premises licence by Peterborough City Council (PCC) after a hearing attended by BP staff last week.

Among them was Dominic Perera, who said more alcohol sales could “fuel the fire” of crime and antisocial behaviour.

“The area already suffers from a lot of crime, antisocial behaviour, vandalism and graffiti,” he said.

“With regards to parking, we have a severe issue now, where – not only do people park on double yellows – but half on the path,” he continued. “There’s a primary school and on certain days the kids are walked along St John’s Street and there have been issues where people struggle to get a push chair between the cars and the shop on the corner.”

Nandan Kumar, another employee at the BP garage – which is next door to the Uni Off Licence – also raised issues over traffic, saying there’s “no safe crossing” on the road or adequate parking.

“We have the nuisance of people parking on our forecourt,” he said, adding that BP has “lost deliveries” because petrol tanks can’t get in.

Zarif Akbari, a representative speaking on behalf of the applicant, Polish Shop Ltd, said he believed it was a “conflict of interest” that BP employees were objecting to the licence being granted, although Mr Kumar said it was based on “health and safety” rather than commercial interests.

He added that PCC’s planning department have recently approved four shops on the road and will have already considered traffic and parking issues in the area.

The road has “one of the widest sidewalks in Peterborough”, he continued, and that pedestrians would be able to get past any cars which do park on the street.

With regards to crime, conditions attached to approval of the premises licence prohibit the sales of super-strength drinks, miniature spirit bottles and individual beers or ciders which might be drunk in the street and influence antisocial behaviour.

The shop’s stock will, moreover, only be around 10 per cent alcohol, he said, with the rest being English groceries.