A HALESOWEN grill restaurant's bid to offer takeaways to help it survive the pandemic has been given the go-ahead despite it not going down well with a neighbouring restaurant.

Beef Belly Grill on the parade of shops on Halesowen Road, opposite the Stag and Three Horseshoes, has been given the thumbs up to offer takeaways from the site until March 2022 "to support the business through the current Covid 19 pandemic where indoor restaurants are currently unable to trade."

Due to the pandemic the government has has put legislation in place to temporarily allow restaurants to expand to offer a takeaway service until March 2022.

The application had attracted an objection from Dilshad International restaurant, which is two doors away.

The objection, from Abdul Batin, stated: "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."

Owner of Beef Belly Grill Mohammad Qureshi refuted the claim and said he had CCTV footage to prove it.

The 43-year-old said: "We have two parking spaces outside 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."

Despite the row Dudley Council planners gave the application for the the Beef Belly Grill 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, the thumbs up.

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

Pic: Google

Pic: Google

A report by council planners states: "The principle of a hot food takeaway has been resisted previously due to the detrimental impact that such a use would have on highway safety.

"This parade has a history of personal injuries due to the siting and conflict between highways users, to the extent that a number of local safety schemes have been introduced to improve safety in this location.

"Notwithstanding this, there remains conflict.

"This is exacerbated due to the presence of a large secondary school nearby which results in a large number of children congregating in the centre at peak times. Such activities, due to the siting and access of the frontage parking that serves the parade, there is a significant and high potential risk of highway conflicts.

"However, in order to mitigate some of these risks, the proposed condition seeks to restrict the hot food takeaway outside normal school hours.

"As such, and subject to the application site operating within these hours, the potential risks could be mitigated in the short term while traffic levels are currently lower due to the pandemic."