WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT MORE THAN EVER. SAVE SMP!

For those who don't already know, I spent most of my summer in 2024 applying to extend our licensable hours so that we could serve a little later on a Friday & Saturday evening. After endless bureaucratic setbacks and a huge amount of community support, this was granted...

Only then for us to find out that Planning & Licensing, two departments of the city council, do not speak. Essentially: the officially issued alcohol license on our wall says that we can serve until a time that planning says the doors cannot even be open to the public. Ever the responsible business owner, I dutifully agreed that i'd go through the whole process again, but with planning...who are notoriously more difficult to get through. 

We are now having to provide all the same evidence, management plans, letters of recommendation and incur hefty new fees (that we cannot really afford), just to be open for two more hours on two nights of the week.

As a small business owner/operator i'm both time and money poor and entering into this quasi-legal domain alone has been both emotionally and physically exhausting. I cannot emphasise just how much our continued evening trade on Thursday, Friday and Saturday helps us stay afloat. We are a small café with 18 seats inside and the same outside. We sell natural wine, bruschetta and two beers on tap of an evening. We've never generated a noise disturbance and our evening trade props up the jobs of at least two people!!

We truly believe that our business is an asset to Withington and that if our evenings go, our entire business model folds and that may just be it for us. We have now suggested an even shorter operating schedule to say that we will close at 22:30 on Thursday and 00:00 on Friday & Saturday. All other days we will be closed by 17:00 as per usual. We can't go any lower than this.

Please sign our petition if you love us and feel happy about these operating hours!! IF YOU LIVE VERY LOCALLY YOUR SIGNATURE MEANS EVEN MORE!

Please read below for full transparency of where we're up to (some very factual accounts and some very strange goings on)

The Manchester City Council Licensing Sub-Committee hearing of 02/12/24, granted a variation to our hours for the sale of alcohol, for consumption on the premises, to:

Sunday – Thursday 08:00 – 22:30

Friday – Saturday 08:00 – 01:00

Subject to “The external area be cleared of customers by no later than 22:00 daily with the exception of Friday and Saturday whereby it shall be cleared of customers by 00:00”

The Committee stated, within the reasons, that:

 “The Committee considered the applicant to be a responsible operator and heard that he (Theo) had engaged with residents, local ward Councillors and key community organisations prior to making the application and they were supportive of the application. The Committee noted that no objections were made by either GMP or local residents.”  

On 16/01/25, the Planning Department, of MCC despite the reasons above, wrote that they were unable to support the extended hours, stating: 

“We have received five letters of objection from local residents in response to this planning application. These letters are dated to the 13th December, 15th December, 2nd January and 3rd January respectively.”

AFTER OVER A YEAR OF TRADING WITHOUT A SINGLE COMPLAINT OR OBJECTION, SOMETHING THAT WAS CHECKED AND DECLARED DURING OUR HEARING, WE HAVE NOW RECEIVED 5 OBJECTIONS WITHIN A MONTH?...A MONTH DURING WHICH WE NEVER ALTERED OUR OPERATING SCHEDULE, TRADED LATER OR DID ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY??

Planning will not allow us to see the 5 letters, even on a redacted basis, preferring to summarise them in their own words. We do not agree with the summaries. 

For instance, one summarised objection merely says that it is unacceptable for a business to be open until 01:00 on a Thursday....something we've never done or asked for in our application?!

They suggest that we are irresponsible and uncaring of our community and do not reflect how much respect and consideration we have for our community.

We believe that we are neighbourly and our hosting of events including Jazz, Wine Tasting, Barista Training, Quizzes and Carol Singing are all well attended.

We are grateful to have just about survived our first year, serving almost 40,000 of our community, and we are super-pleased to be open in year two but Something More Productive is not viable if our hours are restricted by the Planning Department.

Please support our Petition whereby we will clear all customers no later than 22:30 Monday to Thursday & Sunday and 00:00 on Friday and Saturday.

Theo, Roscoe and all the wonderful team of Something More Productive.