Miami Crispy, Ilford withdraws plan for later opening hours

Miami Crispy, in Claybury Broadway, Clayhall applied to extend its opening hours to midnight on Thursday, Friday and Saturday back in November last year.

This received immediate criticism from residents, who started a petition led by Razwana Hafiz.

The petition described Clayhall as "a dumping ground for Miami Crispy's containers".

Last Friday (January 24) a Redbridge Council licensing sub-committee meeting discussed the application.

After around one-and-a-half hours of scrutiny by unhappy residents, including Razwana, the owner of Miami Crispy, Tayyab Ahklaq, withdrew his application.

This came after the meeting heard the impacts of Miami Crispy on the Clayhall neighbourhood including littering, anti-social behaviour and alleged illegal parking.

Residents are angry at littering and alleged illegal parking (Image: Razwana Hafiz) One resident told Mr Ahklaq: “It’s a question of trust. How can we trust you? I think the only way you can prove that trust to us is to withdraw the application.” 

Mr Ahklaq responded: “If it's possible, I’m happy to do that right now.”

Cllr Anne Marie Sachs offered Mr Ahklaq the opportunity to confirm his decision - which he did.

He continued: “The position I am in is that if I withdraw my application, you will say I have wasted all your time but I would rather get this relationship sorted where we are all closer to being on the same page.

"So I am formally withdrawing my application.

“I would rather work with neighbours, residents, businesses and councillors to get things sorted and make a fresh start.”

Speaking to the Recorder after the hearing, Razwana claimed that Mr Ahklaq knew "he was fighting a losing battle" and that he hadn't realised "he was going to get such backlash".

She added: “A lot of us were actually disappointed because we wanted it to be rejected.”

Razwana also claimed that the council had formed an agreement in principle with Tayyab, which she described as "disgusting."

Lewis Dodd, leader of the licensing team, said at the start of the hearing: "Agreement has been reached with the licensing authority.

"Should committee be minded to grant the application, this agreement should be applied to the license."

It is unclear what he was referring to, but Redbridge Council denied an agreement had been made to approve the application.

A spokesperson for the council said: “For clarity we want to confirm that there was never any agreement reached in principle or in any other manner because the applicant withdrew their application."