Ilford Takeaways Bid to Serve Until 5am, Police Object

Four food businesses in the borough have asked for permission to serve hot food into the small hours. Every one of the four has drawn an official objection, and every one has been sent to a hearing because of it.

Redbridge’s licensing sub-committee sat on 18 and 19 August. It sits again on Tuesday 25 August and on Thursday 3 September. All four cases are about late-night refreshment, which is the licence you need to sell hot food or drink between 11pm and 5am. None of them involves alcohol.

The four applications

A hearing is not automatic. Under section 18 of the Licensing Act 2003 the council must hold one only when relevant representations have been received, and only if the applicant and the objectors do not agree it can be skipped. Four hearings in three weeks means four contested cases.

In every one of the four reports, the objections listed come from official bodies. No resident representation appears in any of them.

How far past the council’s own hours these go

Redbridge’s Statement of Licensing Policy sets framework hours: the closing times the council regards as normal for a type of premises in a given area. For licensed restaurants and cafes in both Ilford Town and Chadwell, the reports for Ali Curry House and GDK put them at:

• Monday to Thursday, 10:00 to 23:00
• Friday and Saturday, 10:00 to 23:30
• Sunday, 11:00 to 22:30

The policy sets no framework hours for takeaways, saying instead that each application is taken on its own merits. All three premises licence reports still record the same finding in the same words: the application “does seek hours significantly beyond the recommended framework hours quoted in the Council’s statement of licensing policy”.

Ilford Town: refusal is the starting point

Two of the four, Fireaway Pizza and Ali Curry House, sit inside the Ilford Town Cumulative Impact Zone. That matters more than anything else in either file.

The council’s policy, quoted in both reports, is blunt. Where a cumulative impact zone is in place, “there is a rebuttable presumption that applications for new premises licences will be refused”. A licence may be granted “only in exceptional circumstances where an applicant can demonstrate that granting an application will not add to cumulative impact”.

So in the town centre the burden sits with the applicant, not with the objectors.

Fireaway Pizza, 331 Ley Street

Fry Away Chicken Ltd applied for a new premises licence for Fireaway Pizza at 331 Ley Street, IG1 4AA. The application seeks late-night refreshment from 23:00 to 03:00, seven days a week.

The shop itself would shut to customers at 23:00. The report describes it as a takeaway restaurant seating roughly eight to ten people, open to the public from 11:00 to 23:00. After that it would trade only for collection and third-party delivery. There is no sale of alcohol.

Three responsible authorities objected: the Metropolitan Police licensing team, the council’s own licensing enforcement team, and the public health team. Their representations cite all four licensing objectives, which are the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance, and the protection of children from harm.

Ali Curry House, 303 High Road

The application for Ali Curry House at 303 High Road, IG1 1NR, goes further. Its summary seeks late-night refreshment 23:00 to 05:00, with the premises open to the public from 00:00 to 00:00, meaning around the clock. It is described as a restaurant and takeaway with no sale of alcohol.

One caution on the detail. The report contradicts itself on the days. Paragraph 1.2 gives the hours as Monday to Sunday. Paragraph 4.3, setting out the same application, gives them as Monday to Thursday. We have quoted the summary figure and flagged the discrepancy rather than choosing between them.

Again three authorities objected: the Metropolitan Police licensing team, the council’s licensing enforcement team and public health, this time on the basis that all four licensing objectives may be undermined.

The hearing is at 2.30pm on Thursday 3 September, in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall.

Chadwell Heath: GDK wants to triple its late window

The GDK at 1201-1203 High Road, Chadwell Heath, RM6 4AL, is already licensed. HGJ Foods Ltd holds premises licence 082163, and it applied to vary it.

What the licence allows now:

• Sunday to Thursday, late-night refreshment 23:00 to 00:00
• Friday and Saturday, 23:00 to 01:00

What it asked for:

• Monday to Sunday, late-night refreshment 23:00 to 03:00

Public opening hours would not change. The report says dine-in service closes at 23:00 under the proposal, with takeaway and delivery only after that.

There is history here. The council’s records show the premises has been licensed since April 2023, and that first licence was itself granted only after a sub-committee hearing on an opposed application. The council’s licensing enforcement team and the Metropolitan Police both objected this time, on the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance.

Chadwell Heath is not in a cumulative impact zone, so there is no presumption of refusal. The framework hours still apply.

Khaba: three Ramadan notices, and a noise objection

The case on Tuesday 25 August is a different mechanism. Khaba, Unit 2, 210 Ilford Lane, IG1 2LW, has not applied for a licence. It has served three temporary event notices, lodged on 12 August 2026.

The three notices cover late-night refreshment from 00:01 to 05:00 each day across:

• Sunday 14 to Saturday 20 February 2027
• Monday 22 to Sunday 28 February 2027
• Tuesday 2 to Monday 8 March 2027

The stated purpose, in the notices’ own words, is “to extend the terminal hours for late-night refreshment for the sale of hot food and drinks (No alcohol) for Ramadhan for all three events”.

A temporary event notice is not an application the council approves. Under section 100 of the Act the premises user simply notifies the licensing authority, the police and environmental health at least ten working days ahead. Only the police and environmental health can object, and if either does, a hearing becomes compulsory.

Here the council’s Community Protection Task Force (Noise) has objected to all three, on the prevention of public nuisance and public safety.

The sub-committee has three options: let the events run, let them run with some or all of the existing premises licence conditions attached, or issue a counter notice, which stops them.

What it means for you

• The decisions are not public yet. The agendas for Fireaway Pizza, GDK and Ali Curry House all say the decision goes to the parties within five working days of the hearing. Nothing had been published on the council’s decision register when we checked on 23 August.
• You can turn up. Licensing sub-committee hearings are public. The 25 August hearing on Khaba is at 10.30am in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall, Ilford. The 3 September hearing on Ali Curry House is at 2.30pm in the same room.
• You do not have to live nearby to object. The GDK report sets out the position plainly: any person can make representations on an application “regardless of their geographic proximity to the premises”. The catch is that a representation only counts if it relates to one of the four licensing objectives, and is not frivolous or vexatious.
• The window is 28 days. Representations must be made within 28 days of the application being served, and the applicant has to advertise it in a local paper and display a blue notice at the premises.
• Nothing here is about alcohol. All four cases are hot food and drink only.
• This is separate from planning. A licence governs when a business may trade, not what the building may be used for. Our Ilford planning news page covers the other half.

One thing the council’s own reports disagree on

Three officer reports, from the same licensing team, quote different framework hours for the same category of premises.

The GDK and Ali Curry House reports both cite Chapter or Section C3 of the policy and give Monday to Thursday 10:00 to 23:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 23:30, and Sunday 11:00 to 22:30. The Fireaway Pizza report cites Chapter 5 and gives Monday to Thursday 10:00 to 23:30, Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 00:00, and Sunday 11:00 to 23:00.

The difference is half an hour to an hour depending on the day. It does not change any of the four outcomes, because every application is hours beyond either version. We have used the two reports that agree, and flagged the third rather than quietly picking one.

Sources

• Licensing Sub-Committee, 18 August 2026 and the officer report on Fireaway Pizza, 331 Ley Street, for the hours applied for, the description of the premises, the three responsible authority objections and the cumulative impact zone position.
• Licensing Sub-Committee, 19 August 2026 and the officer report on GDK, 1201-1203 High Road Chadwell Heath, for premises licence 082163, the current and proposed hours, the two objections and the April 2023 licensing history.
• Licensing Sub-Committee, 25 August 2026 and the officer report on the three temporary event notices for Khaba, 210 Ilford Lane, for the dates, the 00:01 to 05:00 window, the stated purpose and the noise objection.
• Licensing Sub-Committee, 3 September 2026 and the officer report on Ali Curry House, 303 High Road, for the hours applied for, the three objections and the cumulative impact zone position.
• Licensing Act 2003 for sections 17, 18 and 100, and the definition of late-night refreshment.

All four officer reports were published by Redbridge Council and read in full on 23 August 2026. We have not named the individual applicants or agents. Any licence holder or applicant who wants to add a comment can contact us and we will publish it alongside this report.