RESIDENTS of a village in Cornwall say they are at their “wits’ end” since a popular chicken wings restaurant and takeaway opened.

They say customers and staff have been disrespectful to locals due to dangerous parking, revving engines, other noise and antisocial behaviour.

A number of locals and the area’s Reform UK councillor believe that a bid by Wing Shed to sell alcohol would exacerbate the situation and add to their stress.

The licence application by the owners of the Wing Shed restaurant in London Apprentice, near St Austell, was considered by a Cornwall Council committee today (Wednesday, July 16) and ultimately refused.

Wesley Blair, co-owner of Wing Shed which also has a successful outlet in Truro, said the business’ intention was to sell low strength beers. “It’s not going to be somewhere where people come to get drunk, it’s just ‘come and enjoy a local craft beer or cider with your meal in the sunshine’.”

He said the business had put up signs in the last couple of weeks asking customers not to park outside, which had also been verbally communicated to patrons.

“Obviously there have been people parking wherever they choose which has been inconvenient for local residents, but if we’ve seen it we have asked customers politely to move. They’ve all been very obliging, but it is quite difficult to get people to use the lay-bys further up the road as one opposite the shop is quite limited in space,” he added.

Cllr Debra Clegg asked if there was any option in the area for Wing Shed to rent some space for parking. Mr Blair said the business had been approached by a local landowner asking them if they’d like to buy a nearby field but “unfortunately we can’t afford to do that”.

He told the meeting that when the business first opened in London Apprentice there was a “massive influx” of people turning up for food and waiting times “got a little bit out of hand with the demand” which led to customers hanging around. “I think that situation has improved since we have had our app in place for pre-ordering and there is enough space for people eating in with the 18 seats we have.” He said time slots were controlled via the app.

However, residents disagreed that the situation had improved. Julia Cunningham, the Reform councillor for the area, said she was representing the concerns of her constituents who, she added, were united in their opposition to the licence. She urged the committee to refuse due to “persistent antisocial behaviour and severe parking problems” causing significant distress to local residents.

She added that residents had reported numerous incidents of antisocial behaviour linked to Wing Shed  to Devon and Cornwall Police, including rowdy conduct, beeping of horns and revving of cars and motorbikes, which “disrupt the peace of our community”. She believed the introduction of alcohol sales would “almost certainly intensify these problems without robust measures to control such risk”.

Cllr Cunningham said customers routinely illegally parked on the road and narrow pavement causing traffic congestion which has already led to a reported accident. “This incident highlights the real dangers posed to motorists, pedestrians and emergency vehicles’ access.”

She added: “Residents are frankly at their wits’ end as evidenced by their numerous complaints to me and the local parish council. London Apprentice is a family-orientated area with children frequently walking or cycling near the premises – the traffic hazards caused by roadside parking already create an unsafe environment. The introduction of alcohol would introduce further risk including intoxicated customers behaving inappropriately in an intimidating atmosphere for young people.”

Cllr Cunningham said that a few nights ago a neighbour went outside to “chaotic scenes” and was jeered and shouted at by a crowd of people outside the restaurant, which she concluded was “intimidation”.

Alison Taylor was the resident in question. One of eight people who had written to the council opposing the application, she told the committee: “I have been asked to collect evidence by our local council and the police. I went outside to take some photos to illustrate the problems this Sunday afternoon and was met by jeering, laughing and waving from the Wing Shed clientèle who clearly find the dangerous and stressful situation amusing.”

She said that new ‘please do not park’ signs had gone up within the last week, but were already being ignored. “The day after those were installed, we came home from work to find cars parked diagonally outside Wing Shed again, blocking the pavement entirely. We didn’t see any evidence of anyone asking them to move.

“It has been stated more than once in the applicant’s responses that he’s been in collaboration with residents. I can safely say and will, I am sure, be backed up by other residents that at no point has anyone from Wing Shed approached us about how to make their business better run in order to avoid issues for residents in the area.”

Mrs Taylor added that the only interaction they’d had was when the owner said he could not control the actions of his staff. “This naturally leaves us with concerns about his abilities to control any customers who they may not wish to serve with alcohol or who have had too much as he cannot even control those he’s paying a wage to.”

She said she was also met with a response of “report me then” by Mr Blair when he was asked for staff to stop revving their motorbikes excessively and shining their headlights into neighbouring homes’ windows.

Mrs Taylor stressed it wasn’t just residents of London Apprentice who are affected but others from St Austell, Polgooth and Pentewan who “have all voiced their serious concerns over the granting of an alcohol licence due to the dangerous parking, noise and antisocial behaviour, none of which occurred when the previous tenants (a café and shop) ran a business from the premises”.

She mentioned that an article about the situation was shared by Wing Shed on its Facebook page, with the restaurant saying ‘It’s disheartening when the local community doesn’t give us any support from day one’. “This has actively encouraged a backlash against local residents because Wing Shed customers are now saying how awful we all are,” said Mrs Taylor.

“I’ve seen comments on their post saying ‘Jesus, these curtain twitchers need to get a grip’, ‘always some self-entitled muppet to moan about anything and everything’, ‘absolute Karens’ and ‘Doris down the road has clearly never chewed on those succulent tenders’ to which Wing Shed replied that they are succulent tenders and they’re ‘missing out big time’.

“This doesn’t make me feel that this is a sensible business because at no point have they said ‘well, these are our neighbours so could we be respectful of them’. It does go some way to illustrate the kind of people who are disrespecting the local residents. We feel very strongly about it and it’s getting quite stressful for us.”

The meeting was shown videos filmed by residents with examples of dangerous parking, noise from customers and revving engines.

Another resident Joanne Chambers also spoke about her opposition to the licence over public safety and prevention of public nuisance issues, citing many of the problems highlighted by the other speakers. She said she is no longer able to walk past Wing Shed as she has restricted vision and it would mean having to step out into the road with her dogs due to the badly parked cars.

Andy Cleverdon, a Pentewan resident, also added to the dissent, saying the parking is “abysmal – you wouldn’t be able to get a pram or wheelchair down there”. “Regardless of whether there are signs up, people are still doing it. I can’t see how alcohol is going to make it any better, it’s only going to exacerbate the problem,” he added.

Mr Blair responded to the concerns and said the accident that was mentioned by Cllr Cunningham was caused by a motorcyclist exceeding the 30mph speed limit which hit a customer’s vehicle.

He said after Mr and Mrs Taylor complained about the noise from staff’s motorbikes, he had “stern words” with his employees and the situation had improved. “I said to them at the time, if I have left the premises, it’s very difficult for me to see the behaviour that’s happening. Obviously I can see in the videos and it’s not at all acceptable.

“The point with me telling them to report it – that is fair, I did say that, but when they said they were going to report it I felt quite threatened. It felt like everything I was trying to do to help was going unnoticed.”

Mr Blair added that of two noisy cars caught on the neighbour’s videos, one was a customer who had been spoken to and the other was nothing to do with Wing Shed. He said that Wing Shed’s nearest neighbour, an elderly woman, was very supportive of the business and licensing application. “I do truly believe that we won’t be serving alcohol irresponsibly,” he told the licensing committee.

Following deliberations, the licence was refused by the committee. Members noted that the premises was already causing issues for local residents including noise nuisance and “poor, inconsiderate and even dangerous parking” by customers. They also noted that it was affecting the ability of residents to enter and leave their homes safely.

The councillors felt that granting a licence to premises that were already negatively impacting on public nuisance and safety would not be appropriate. They felt that mitigating measures put in place by Wing Shed had not been effective and issues continued to arise.