24 Hour Shops - Planning Legislation

Raging

What does the law say in relation to the opening of 24 hour convenience stores in residential areas? Are there any legal steps that can be taken to prevent a 24 hour shop opening in a residential area?

Delancey

I know someone who had the same concerns as you a few years ago . Ultimately the development never took place but he was told that there were no special laws around this other than the ' normal ' planning laws.

234

You can always take a nuisance action; it would help if you are a little old lady.

Raging

Can i take a nuisance action before the shop introduces 24 hour opening? The shop is already established in the area but currently closes at 11pm each night. Would it be wise to write to the local Superintendent and express my concerns to him as well? The Gardai in my town have been active in encouraging the local takeaways to close no later than 3am at weekends in a bid to reduce anti-social behaviour.

coylemj

Raging wrote: »

Can i take a nuisance action before the shop introduces 24 hour opening? The shop is already established in the area but currently closes at 11pm each night. Would it be wise to write to the local Superintendent and express my concerns to him as well? The Gardai in my town have been active in encouraging the local takeaways to close no later than 3am at weekends in a bid to reduce anti-social behaviour.

If there's no (alcohol) licensing issues then the only thing the Gardai can do is inform the shopkeeper that if he encounters trouble that he's on his own and not to bother calling them. That's what the Gardai do in small towns when there's a traveller's funeral on the horizon, the result is that every shop and pub in the town closes until the coast is clear.

In your case if there's no big risk of public disorder at all hours of the night then the Gardai won't really take sides and you'd have to investigate if you can tackle the issue from a planning perspective.

You can't really take a nuisance action, that would be tantamount to finding the shopkeeper and his customers guilty of an offence before anything happened. If the shopkeeper says that there is a demand for an all night service and he intends to prevent people from congregating outside the shop and causing an annoyance to the neighbours then I don't see that there's much that you can do before he extends his opening hours.

Raging

There is a high risk of public disorder. The town is a mecca for anti-social behaviour once the niteclubs close. In order to reduce the levels of anti-social behaviour, the Joint Policing Committee encouraged the local takeaway operators to close earlier. If this shop's opening hours are extended, there will be hundreds of people congregating at this shop on Friday/Saturday nights. This would be in direct conflict with the policies of the Joint Policing Committee and that's why I thought it may be an idea to express my views to the Superintendent.

Another option, I suppose, would be to lobby local councillors and ask them to introduce a bye-law that would prevent 24 hour opening in residential areas. I believe such bye-laws exist in some Council areas.

coylemj

Raging wrote: »

There is a high risk of public disorder. The town is a mecca for anti-social behaviour once the niteclubs close. In order to reduce the levels of anti-social behaviour, the Joint Policing Committee encouraged the local takeaway operators to close earlier.

I appreciate your concerns and you obviously know the area well since you live there. However I note your use of the word 'encourage' when referring to the police committee and the takeaway, do I take it from that that they didn't have the legal wherewithal to force him to close earlier? If so then I can't see that they can stop the convenience store from opening all night.

Raging

I used the word encourage because that is exactly what they did. They encouraged the operators to close earlier. The committee had no legal authority to force them to close earlier but 90% of the takeaways agreed to do so. The committee is obviously an influential group and that is why I intend to express my views to them.

Has anyone any experience of going down the bye-law route?

Mearfada

Raging wrote: »

What does the law say in relation to the opening of 24 hour convenience stores in residential areas? Are there any legal steps that can be taken to prevent a 24 hour shop opening in a residential area?

if the shop has planning approval relatively recently then it is likely that there is a specified opening/closing time in the conditions. Any deviation from these to more unsocial hours would require a new application which you can make a submission on and appeal if need be.

re the bye laws it is unlikely that a local authority would restrict something that hasn't already proved to be a nuisance also a 24hr elsewhere may be acceptable due to its location and the council would be loathe to interfere with rates potential