Artisan pizza van to open in pub car park despite neighbours’ objections

An artisan wood-fired pizza van will move from Thornbury High Street to a pub car park following parking issues. One Pizza, run by Italian cousins Esra Koroglu and Ayse Ozer, was granted a street trading licence outside The Black Horse by South Gloucestershire councillors despite objections from residents.

The pair, who make hand-stretched Neapolitan pizzas using fresh local produce, already have several sites around the district and trade one day a week from each. Four neighbours objected to their application with concerns about litter, vermin, traffic problems, food odours and suspicions that the business would target children walking home from school.

Last May, Esra and Ayse were given permission to set up shop in Thornbury High Street, which was partly pedestrianised in a controversial £4.6million council project. But they made a new application to trade instead from the town’s Black Horse pub in Gillingstool after customer parking became an issue in the town centre, the licensing sub-committee was told on Monday, January 6.

One resident who objected told councillors in a written statement: “The main road (Gillingstool) is a main artery into/out of Thornbury and on the town’s main bus route. The road will clog easily if people park on the kerbside.

“We already have a problem with rubbish discarded on the path leading away from the Murco petrol station. My concern is that this will significantly increase with the presence of a pizza van five days per week. I see only downsides and risks, with no upside.

A neighbour wrote: “I have had occasional nuisance from the pub including a drunkard who fell through my gate (breaking it) at 1.30am, other noise and associated overflow parking. Additional rolling footfall wouldn’t be welcome.

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“Litter is a concern and our local bins are often rammed as it is. The High Street is a more sensible location if it’s felt the town needs further fast-food provision.”

Another wrote: “There will be an increase of rubbish and food waste, which will encourage vermin within the local vicinity.” But the panel heard no complaints had been received about the other sites since the business opened three years ago and the van had a five-star food hygiene rating.

Esra told the meeting that although their trading hours would be 3pm to 9pm, this included time to set up before serving, so they would not be serving school pupils walking home. She said: “Our target market is families during dinner times.

“We have never seen antisocial behaviour at any of our locations.” Esra said that after parking became an issue on the High Street, they wanted to move to a site nearer their customers, so chose the pub car park in a residential area with the agreement of The Black Horse’s landlord.

“If we are successful today, we will give up our High Street licence,” Esra said. She said the wood-fired oven produced minimal smoke and that the van would not cause an obstruction or create extra traffic because most customers pre-ordered and that it took just three minutes to cook a pizza, so people would not be there for long.

Esra said they always picked up any litter at the end of their shift, even if it was not theirs. She said that although the application was to trade from Tuesday to Saturday, that was only to give them flexibility if they needed to change their trading day in any week because of family priorities but that they would only be there one day per week.

There were no objections from any of the authorities, including the town council.