A HALESOWEN grill restaurant's bid to offer takeaways has not gone down well with a neighbouring restaurant.

Beef Belly Grill on the parade of shops on Halesowen Road, opposite the Stag and Three Horseshoes pub, has applied to Dudley Council to be allowed to offer takeaways from the site.

The application has attracted an objection from Dilshad International restaurant, which is two doors away, on the grounds of a lack of parking.

The objection, from Abdul Batin, states: "The business in question has only one car parking spot allocated to them.

"However, they have a total of 4 delivery cars and 2 other staff cars, meaning they are taking up spots that are required for my business as well as for other businesses within the area.

"They are the only business which does not obey the one parking slot allocated to them, meaning it is often causing considerable amounts of traffic and blocking cars in.

"This means my staff often struggle to get their vehicles out of the car park."

Owner of Beef Belly Grill Mohammad Qureshi refuted the claim and says he has CCTV footage going back three months to prove it.

The 43-year-old said: "We have two parking spaces opposite the shop and we only use one of those.

"I am the only person who parks in those spaces - all our delivery drivers use the back of the shop.

"We used to use the two spaces until 18 months ago when I paid £2.5k to have the area at the back of the shop levelled and sand and stones put down to make it useable.

"If they can prove what they are claiming I will withdraw the application, shut up shop and move somewhere else.

"Their drivers park in front of my shop, but I don't say anything because we are neighbours and we should get on."

The Beef Belly Grill wants to be allowed to offer takeaways from 4pm till 11pm Monday to Friday and from 10am till 11pm on Saturdays, and from 10am till 10.30pm on Sundays and bank holidays, until March 31 next year.

When it opened in 2019 it was granted permission to operate as a cafe/restaurant, but the application did not include use as a takeaway.

At the moment it is operating on a delivery basis, with customers not allowed to collect their orders.

Mr Qureshi said: "Overall things have been good, other businesses have had to close so we can't complain, delivery has been good, but we would like to be able to also offer takeaways."

The parade of shops features a deli, pizza place, chemist, a hairdressers, general store, church centre, pet food shop, cleaners and a fish and chip shop, amongst others.

Pic: Google

Pic: Google