Row over Thornbury High Street pizza van plans

Locals are fighting plans for an artisan pizza van to trade from Thornbury High Street and a village hall car park in Charfield. The One Pizza owners Esra Koroglu Ward and Ayse Ozer, who currently serve food outside Frenchay Park House on the former hospital site, want to expand to two more locations amid increasing demand from customers.

But two residents have objected to the application for a street trading licence, which seeks permission to sell hand-stretched Italian pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven from 5pm to 9pm on Tuesday to Saturday. They are concerned about the prospect of “unbearable” noise as well as more litter and nuisance.

A rival trader has objected to the proposal to open from 11am to 9pm on the same days at Charfield Memorial Hall car park in Wotton Road. South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) licensing sub-committee will decide both applications over two back-to-back hearings on Thursday, May 2.

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In a written submission to the authority objecting to the Thornbury application, one neighbour said: “We already tolerate the constant slamming of car doors from people using the chip shop. This will add to the volume of noise. We already struggle to park to offload outside of our home thanks to the limited parking after the recent High Street changes, even though large sections of this community, residents and businesses did not want the changes that you delivered.

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“Due to your conservation team not allowing listed buildings on the High Street to have double glazing it means our living room and kitchen can hear every conversation on the High Street. The additional volume of people and noise that a street vendor will bring every evening will be unbearable.

“We already have to have our television on loud volume to drown out the existing level of noise without this addition, let alone the fact that you have installed a bus stop directly opposite which is no doubt going to lead to even more people outside our windows. You closed down the former street trader due to unsociable behaviour from the customers of that vendor.

“We have witnessed violence and vandalism from customers at all times of the evening, not just in the later hours, so there is no reason for this to be considered any different.”

They said the “total lack of public bins” meant there would be even more litter. The neighbour said: “The council has already treated local residents with total disdain and our voices are not heard.

“We now demand that you consider the effect your decisions have on High Street residents. We do exist, even if you want to pretend that we don’t.”

Another objector said there were already enough pizza eateries nearby which offered home delivery but that the van would not, so this would exacerbate parking problems. The person objecting to the Charfield application said: “I trade very near to this location, also selling similar products.

“They have been trading in various locations which I assumed they were doing with a street trading licence. Which they very clearly were not. I find this very unfair because to me it shows you can trade anywhere you like until you’re found out, but then just apply for the licence anyway.

“This will damage my business. There are plenty of other areas they could apply for a licence where no existing takeaway is.” The parish council said: “Charfield Parish Council has no objections to this application, however, the parish council does have concerns over a potential increase in littering and reserves the right to contact SGC planning enforcement should littering become an issue.”

The applicants said the village hall committee fully supported their application to trade from the car park. The two friends wrote: “We are planning on serving in Charfield on Saturdays once a week.

“We have chosen multiple days [on the application form] as this may change over time and we may change it to another day of the week.” Last summer, councillors granted them a street trading licence for the Frenchay site after hearing they would clear up all litter and that the pizzas were healthy and made from scratch using fresh ingredients and no oil, while their wood-fired oven produced hardly any smoke.

Seven neighbours and Winterbourne Parish Council had objected with concerns about noise, smells, parking and rubbish.