Glasgow restaurant approved despite fears over 'rats and noise'

A new restaurant can open on Victoria Road despite neighbours’ concerns over rats and increased noise.

Glasgow’s planning committee has approved a change of use which will see applicant Momin Rabbani convert a former charity shop.

Residents living in the B-listed tenement have voiced complaints over vermin, bins, noise and the number of food places in the area.

But council planners had recommended the project at 433 Victoria Road could go ahead and councillors on the committee agreed.

One neighbour said the street is “already overrun with messy, dangerous, smelly bins that ruin the facade of the Victorian street” and the “proposed bin area isn’t sufficient”.

They added: “There are already too many late-night takeaway restaurants in the area which are a huge contributor to the extreme problems with rats, which residents are struggling to keep under control already.”

Another resident claimed they have “worked hard” to deal with mice and cockroaches and if “waste is to be kept inside in large amounts”, these will return.

She added noise levels are already “very high” due to an existing takeaway and the problem will be “exacerbated by another takeaway”, which can open until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

However, planners said the scheme would bring a vacant unit back into active use and “contribute positively” to the appearance of the street.

In response to a question from councillor Eva Bolander on the proposed waste storage arrangements, a planning officer said: “There is a bin storage located within a wider storage area, and the proposal is that they would contain that within the development.

“The concern was that residents would be worried that they would be using a communal stair and going out into the back lane, but there is a fire escape and we have a condition that says this will only ever be used as a fire escape.

“That is obviously to try and protect the amenity of residents who will be using the communal stair entry.”

He added the developer would need to get necessary consents from the council’s environmental health team, including on the disposal of waste.

A planning report stated the internal bin store will “allow the property to accord with the council’s trade waste procedures”.

The developer’s application stated: “The proposed new restaurant will not only see a new dining experience introduced into the area but will also see the recycling of an otherwise vacant unit which if left vacant could rapidly become a major disamenity.”

Permission was granted in November last year to make alterations to the listed building, but a previous plan to turn the former shop into a takeaway was rejected in May 2021.

There is a “small” takeaway element to the new proposal.

By local democracy reporter Drew Sandelands