A Hitchin councillor has called in a planning application submitted by a takeaway in Bearton Road.

UpTown Pizza & Kebab are seeking permission to open on Sundays and to extend their opening hours later into the evenings on weekdays and Saturdays.

Three previous applications submitted to North Herts Council have been refused permission.

Now, Cllr Ian Albert, who represents Bearton Ward, has posted on Twitter/X to say that he has called the application in.

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This means it will now come before North Herts Council's planning committee for debate and a final decision.

He added: "Amongst many concerns I have about it, despite previous planning decisions, Uptown Pizza has continued to trade outside its permitted hours.

"This is unacceptable."

Last year, the takeaway applied for a Certificate of Lawfulness for an Existing Use or Development.

If they could prove that they had been operating the takeaway outside of the permitted hours for a period of at least 10 years, then they could have been granted permission to open from 10.30pm until 11pm on weekdays, and from 2pm until 11pm on Sundays.

However, North Herts Council thought there was insufficient evidence to grant the certificate.

The current application has already received nine comments from residents - all objecting to it.

Most of the objections to the current and previous applications have focused on noise issues, and a Noise Abatement Notice was served on the takeaway in January 2021.

Local residents can comment on the planning application via North Herts Council's website.