The owner wants to stop paying for a door supervisor which she said costs her between £120 and £150 a night
A Subway owner in an upmarket Kent town has applied to the council to backtrack on the condition she must have a late night door supervisor which she said costs her up to £150 a night.
The application has been made to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council for the town centre branch.
Khyati Singh wants to vary the late night licence for her business in Grosvenor Road, which is opposite the busy Millennium Clock public realm area and on the main road through the Tunbridge Wells.
In the application, Mrs Singh explains how the cost of hiring a "Security Industry Authority (SIA) door supervisor - between £120 to £150 a night" was costing "so much" it could make the business unsustainable.
She said she secured her late night licence in 2013 after appealing. But it came with the condition that there must be a SIA door supervisor on site during licensing hours.
'Might be unsustainable'
But she said: "We are a small food business who only sells hot food and cold drinks in cups or plastic bottles. We have two members of staff working in the store and do not see a requirement for a door man as it is costing us so much that it feels it might be unsustainable to have a costing of doorman for more that £ 120 to £150 per night on top of our other overheads."
Subway is an American fast food chain, selling "subs" - so called because the long bread sandwich is a submarine shape, along with wraps and salads, drinks, desserts, breakfast, and other snacks.
'Not keeping very busy'
Mrs Singh said since Covid, "we have not been keeping very busy" and even when open late, from Thursday to Saturday, they were "not that busy where we have more than three to four customers at any given time".
Mrs Singh said CCTV was operating and recording at all times along with a Verisure Alarm which was monitored "24/7 and have response time of less than a minute when signalled on device or panic alarm is pressed".
The business owner said there was enough security devices to protect and care for staff and customers and she was "confident that we will not have any troubles if operating without a doorman".
No drunks
The application paperwork shows under the heading 'Prevention of crime and disorder', that Mrs Singh also says: "To prevent any crime and disorder we do not allow customers to bring any alcohol in our premises. We also make sure that our staff deals with drunk customers in best possible way."
The late licence allows sale of hot food and cold drinks between 11pm and 5am every day, apart from Sunday, when it is until 4am. Mrs Singh has adjusted that in her variation application, to 11pm to 4am every day.