‘Call time on late-night booze boom’

UNDER-siege residents have warned they will hire a human rights lawyer to fight the Town Hall amid claims that the number of late-night drinking licences in Chalk Farm’s historic Stables Market has reached ­“saturation point”.
There are dozens of licensed premises in the market and many more in Chalk Farm Road – some able to serve drink into the small hours of the morning.
Resident Vijay Mistry urged licensing chiefs on Monday to hold a review of the cumulative impact drinking was having on Camden Town.
At a hearing into a licence application from Coco Pazzo, an Italian-style family restaurant in Stables Market, Mr ­Mistry said: “It’s got to the stage where over New Year and Christmas the council is placing temporary urinals from 6pm to 6am to address the problem of people urinating in our street.
“There’s an ambulance stationed in Parkway every weekend as if alcohol-related problems are a matter of fact.”
The London Ambulance Service revealed paramedics were called to the market 60 times last year – more than once a week.
Across the borough there were 3,318 alcohol-related emergency calls last year – more than 60 a week, or just under 10 a day.
Mr Mistry, a market researcher who has lived in Hartland Road, Chalk Farm, all his life, said: “It is saturated. When I used to go home at the end of a night, I used to say: ‘Thank God Camden Town is in Camden Town.’ I saw so many fights and it still haunts me today – and that’s what our street has become.
“The residents feel they want to take the council to court for infringing our human rights. We have a right to enjoy our family and ­private life.
“We want to engage a human rights lawyer on a no-win, no-fee basis if that’s what it takes to shake them up.”
Camden Town Labour councillor Pat Callaghan, who chaired Monday’s meeting, promised to speak to Conservative councillor Kirsty Roberts, licensing chairwoman, about holding an up-to-date survey of the impact venues in the area are having on residents’ lives. But as Coco Pazzo had applied for a drinks licence within the council’s framework hours of 11.30pm from Monday to Saturday and 10.30pm on a Sunday, and had agreed to serve drinks only with a meal, councillors were legally bound to grant the licence.
Acknowledging that the area was “very difficult” for residents, Cllr Callaghan said three late-night venues – which she declined to name – were the problem.
She added that she would speak to their owners.
Proud, one of the venues at Stables Market, has 700 capacity and can close at 4am on special occasions, although its usual closing time at weekends is 2.30am.
In December last year, licensing chiefs granted a licence to a South African-themed restaurant, Shaka Zulu, which has a 700 capacity and a closing time of 2.30am.
Lib Dem councillor Matt Sanders, who objected to the Coco Pazzo application, warn­ed that the situation in Camden Town and Chalk Farm was “at breaking point”.
“The police, the council, the transport infrastructure are trying everything to deal with the numbers coming to Camden Town,” he added.
Cllr Sanders has made a recommendation that the council pays for residents to have a lawyer represent them at licensing meetings, to put them on an equal footing with applicants.
CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS