Turtle Bay can't stay open until 1.30am because of its location

Turtle Bay had applied to open until 1.30am on Friday and Saturday nights, with alcohol sales and music ceasing at 1am.

The restaurant is based in the ground floor of the Bournemouth Development Company-built Citrus Building on the edge of Horseshoe Common, with flats above.

There were a number of objections to the proposal from residents of the flats, Bournemouth council environmental health and Dorset Police.

Speaking at a meeting of the council’s licensing board on Tuesday, PC Steve Lemon from Dorset Police urged the board to refuse the application based on location.

“It is located in the central Bournemouth Cumulative Impact Area (CIA) which is a hotspot for recorded public place assaults,” added PC Lemon.

“I am certain that by extending the opening and licensing hours of this establishment the majority of customers will be using the premises as a bar rather than a restaurant.”

PC Lemon also referred to figures from Dorset Police’s Cumulative Impact Statement which showed there were 223 public place assaults between 9pm and 6am within the Central Bournemouth CIA between July and December last year.

This accounted for more than half of night time public assaults across the whole of the borough.

However PC Lemon did go on to say that police had not been called to Turtle Bay for any violent of anti-social behaviour incidents since it opened in February last year.

Mr Lyons, speaking on behalf of Turtle Bay, reiterated this point when he told the board there “wasn’t a scrap of evidence to suggest there were anti-social behaviour concerns at the premises”.

Cllr Andrew Morgan, chairman of the licensing board, said: “We recognise Turtle Bay is a well managed premises and welcome its investment and contribution to the regeneration in this area. However are concerned that a variation to the premises licence will add to the problems associated with the night time economy in this location.”