A community champion is to give his full backing to a third application for tables and chairs outside a city pub despite revealing he has previously received anonymous calls from someone threatening to break his legs.

Peter Walsh

A community champion is to give his full backing to a third application for tables and chairs outside a city pub despite revealing he has previously received anonymous calls from someone threatening to break his legs.

As reported by the Evening News last year, a wave of protest followed Norwich City Council's decision to reject proposals for outside seating at Delaney's and Expresso Café in St George's Street.

Despite spending thousands of pounds making the area more appealing to pedestrians and visitors the council rejected the plans after objections about potential crime and disorder.

A second application originally submitted last August was withdrawn, but now a new battle is looming after landlady Linda Morgan submitted an application for permission to put 15 aluminium chairs and 60 metal tables outside the pub on St Andrew's Street, Norwich.

The application, which will be determined by the city council's regulatory committee on March 18, is for the tables and chairs to be outside daily between 10am and 10.30pm.

It also states a further CCTV camera will be placed outside to patrol the area where the tables and chairs are placed, while door staff will be instructed to keep an eye on the area as well as bar staff who will regularly clear tables of glasses to keep the area tidy.

Julian Foster, chairman of the Central Norwich Citizens' Forum, said he hopes the new application is successful, despite having received threats after supporting the original application.

Mr Foster, who is still recovering from a horrifying ordeal where he was struck down by illness and left paralysed in his bed for three or four days until police officers bashed his door down, said: “I received two anonymous calls from someone purporting to represent the residents opposing the application threatening to have someone break my legs if I continued to support the application.

“I don't personally worry about things like that. Over the years I've had several threats.

“We want this to go through because otherwise it deprives the residents of Norwich, the people of Norwich, and visitors of a real opportunity to take advantage of a pedestrian place which has cost a considerable amount of money - all of these improvements have been done for the benefit of the people of Norwich as a whole and the visitors to the city.”

To date 10 letters of objection and 12 letters of support have been received by officers at City Hall.

Solicitor John Hardman, who lives nearby the proposed site, objected to previous plans for the tables and chairs. Mr Hardman and his wife Carol, who runs a bed and breakfast in Princes Street, cited “problems of noise litter broken glass commotion and din” among previous objections.

Lisa Croft of Cheltenham-based solicitors Maitland Walker, acting on behalf of Delaney's, said: “If this application is granted its not going to cause any public disorder issues at the premises. It's a very well run pub.”

Bosses at the Expresso Café in nearby St George's Street were granted permission last September for three tables and 15 chairs to be put outside the premises.

Do you think Delaney's should be granted permission to have tables and chairs outside? Write to Evening News Letters, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, NR1 1RE or email eveningnewsletters@archant.co.uk