Galgorm Collection loses bid to extend Ormeau hotel licensing hours

Galgorm Collection has failed in its bid to have licensing hours extended from 11pm to 1am at a new boutique hotel and restaurant it plans to open on the Upper Ormeau Road.

Residents living close to the derelict Holy Rosary Church objected to the application after planning permission for the £8m project at 348-350 Ormeau Road was granted in 2019 on the basis that the licensing would end at 11pm. They cited fears the planned Raven hotel could eventually host a nightclub should a late license be granted.

A council planning report stated: “The 11pm closing time was considered to allow the restaurant to operate on the same footing as other licenced restaurants and to offer a level of protection to the neighbouring residential properties from increased noise at unsociable hours and to residents of the hotel.”

Belfast City Council Planning Committee has now rejected the bid to extend licensing hours by seven votes to six.

Green Party Councillor  Áine Groogan, told the committee: “A letter on November 3, 2021, states that the council should know that this planning permission has not been implemented to date by the applicant and would not be unless planning condition number 11 is varied, in accordance with this application to make the scheme commercially viable.

“I take serious issue with any attempt to hold this council to ransom. Our built heritage is important but is not to be used as a bargaining chip in this manner to try to force this council to set aside valid planning concerns with unsubstantiated claims about commercial viability. No restaurant in this area operates until 1am, and I am not aware of any in the city that do.”

SDLP Councillor for Botanic, Gary McKeown, told the committee: “The applicant may want to maximise the operating hours of the proposed business at this site, but this isn’t a consideration for this committee, and the issues in the round were considered extensively in 2019 when the overall planning permission was granted.

“The situation since then has not changed, in that this remains a residential area where any proposed development needs to be in keeping with its surroundings both in terms of structure and crucially in this case, operation.”

An agent for the applicant told the committee: “I am not aware of any established hotel where such restricted hours of opening apply, many of which which operate beside residential properties. Galgorm Collection wished to ensure that reasonable fair trading hours are in place before it progresses its £8 million investment.”

They added: “The suggestion that the site might be flipped, and that the client is intending to sell – I can categorically say that is not the intention whatsoever of Galgorm Collection.

“The Galgorm Collection is committed to this site, it is committed to an investment. What it can’t commit to plainly is a situation where what it is signing up to is not viable operational hours within the business.”