An Indian restaurant in Barrow that had its licence revoked following immigration raids is set to learn if it can serve alcohol and play music until the early hours.
Members of the licensing committee for Westmorland and Furness Council will decide on January 4 whether to grant a premises license to Taj Mahal on Cavendish Street, Barrow, after the restaurant had it revoked in May.
The restaurant has applied for a premises licence which includes the sale of alcohol and the playing of music from 10am until 3am every day.
Applicant Fahmida Shamim said in the application that CCTV will be installed and customers will not be allowed to take opened bottles of alcohol off the premises.
The application added all the windows upstairs are double glazed to minimise noise.
The restaurant was previously visited by the Home Office in April 2023 and October 2022 as enforcement officers suspected that people were there without a right to work.
The October raid resulted in the arrest of two Afghan men and a Bangladeshi, the Home Office said. On April 20, a Bangladeshi man was arrested on suspicion of working illegally.
The restaurant faced a fine of £10,000 over the arrest from the April raid and £30,000 in the October raid, according to the Home Office. In May the premises license was revoked.
The director of public health at Westmorland and Furness Council made an objection to the new proposals and said: “The applicant has made no acknowledgement in the application as to the fact that the premises licence was previously revoked, nor is there any indication of how previous issues of illegal working at the premises will be overcome. No conditions relating to right to work checks have been offered in the operating schedule.
“This concerns the licensing authority that lessons have not been learnt and claims may be made by the licence holder that right to work checks and preventing illegal working at the premises is not her responsibility.
“Simply applying for a licence in a different name does not mean that previous issues and history at the premises can be ignored. It is noted in the decision notice that the civil penalty issued to the premises has not been paid.”
Cumbria Constabulary also recommended the refusal of the licensing application as they oppose the sale of alcohol and playing of music until 3am.
However, it said it would have no further objections if the premises were to stop serving alcohol and playing music at midnight. The force added that it would require door staff to be present from 11pm onwards among other conditions to not object to the proposals.
Members of the licensing sub-committee for Westmorland and Furness Council will decide whether to grant the licence on Thursday, January 4, at Barrow Town Hall.
