{"id":258128,"date":"2025-07-12T05:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T05:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/258128\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T05:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T05:36:12","slug":"plans-for-kfc-restaurant-in-birmingham-given-green-light-despite-health-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/258128\/","title":{"rendered":"Plans for KFC restaurant in Birmingham given green light despite health concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city council considered a proposal for an extension in hours taking \u2018late night refreshment\u2019 from 11pm until 5am at the KFC<\/a> outlet in Battery Retail Park, Selly Oak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Permission was also sought to provide \u2018regulated entertainment\u2019, particularly indoor recorded music, from noon until 3am.<\/p>\n

But prior to a licensing meeting earlier this month, the council\u2019s public health team \u201cstrongly recommended\u201d refusal of the application and said they had \u201csignificant concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n

They argued that granting the extension in hours could \u201cundermine efforts to improve health outcomes in Selly Oak\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe KFC restaurant in Battery Retail Park in Selly Oak, Birmingham. Taken from Google Maps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed extension poses disproportionate risks to public health<\/a> and community wellbeing, particularly in a locality already facing challenges related to obesity, youth vulnerability, and anti-social behaviour,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

But solicitor Ewen Macgregor, representing the applicant Demipower Limited, defended the proposals during the meeting, saying his client was the \u201clargest KFC franchisee in the country\u201d and an \u201cexperienced operator\u201d.<\/p>\n

The licensing sub-committee agreed to let the franchisee extend their hours and said the proposal was \u201cprecise, enforceable and would cover any risk adequately\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company was well versed in running late night refreshment premises and all management arrangements including staff training were satisfactory,\u201d it said in a decision notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sub-committee was confident the company would operate responsibly under the varied licence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Macgregor said a \u201csignificant number of conditions\u201d were already attached to the licence, which covered CCTV, staff training and litter collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the applicant] are obliged to comply with the KFC brand standards \u2013 one of which is the commitment to being a good neighbour and also the KFC nutrition update,\u201d he also said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are also an experienced operator of late licensed premises. They have never had a licence reviewed, let alone revoked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of that happens by accident,\u201d he continued. \u201cEach site is supported by head office and they are committed to working collaboratively with the stakeholders in the local authority area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the comments by Public Health, he said: \u201cMy clients are of course respectful of the concerns but this is not the forum to address those concerns \u2013 you are constrained by the promotion of the licensing objectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concerns particularly articulated by public health do not address the issues in relation to those licensing objectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot unsympathetic to the concerns they have raised in relation to issues of obesity but as I said earlier, this is not the forum in which to address those \u2013 there are other areas in which those matters can be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also reminded those at the licensing meeting that alcohol was \u201cnot a feature\u201d of the application.<\/p>\n

The sub-committee later wrote: \u201cThe company was highly experienced as a national franchise holder for KFC and inspired confidence as a well-known late-night refreshment operator around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city council considered a proposal for an extension in hours taking \u2018late night refreshment\u2019 from 11pm until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,105,8823,379,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-258128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-ldrs","14":"tag-local-hubs","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114838646568487620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}