Pigwa International Grocery Little Hulton alcohol licence hearing

Salford council issued the licence to Pigwa International Grocery, based at 141-143 Manchester Road East in Little Hulton, during a hearing on March 25.

The applicant, Hoshiar Karimi, was joined at the hearing by his designated premises supervisor, Beata Filipek.

They told councillors that the majority of their customers are residents from Poland and other parts of eastern Europe.

They said they want to open from 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 8pm on Sundays.

The applicants said: “We’re a small family shop, it’s more like a Polish shop, we have products such as dairy, meat, vegetables.

“We’re asking for permission for a licence which would be a small part of the shop. It’s for the clients coming to the shop who want to buy the products.

“We have challenge 25, we will have a CCTV camera, everywhere where we have the alcohol.”

They added: “This is a Polish store so we need Polish alcohol as well for the community.”

An objection was made at the hearing by Daryoush Adineh, a shopkeeper in the area for more than 20 years.

He said there is an informal agreement between his shop and Bargain Booze not to sell any alcohol before 11am.

He went on: “There are some very vulnerable people there, I remember 15 years ago at 7 o’clock in the morning before I opened the shop, there were four or five alcohol dependent people waiting for me to sell them cheap cider.

“Me and my wife decided to stop selling alcohol before 11 o’clock just to help those vulnerable people.

“Even if you can mix bleach with water and sell it to them, they would buy it from you.

“My license starts from 6 in the morning but we don’t sell alcohol until 11o’clock, the same for Bargain Booze, because of those vulnerable people.”

The applicant and objector had the chance to give statements and ask questions during the licensing hearing.

The hearing was chaired by Cllr Chioma Mgbeokwere, who was joined by councillors Yolande Ghola and Michael Pevitt.

The objector added at the hearing: “My concern is selling alcohol at 8 o’clock in the morning, 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, there are some very vulnerable people there.

“They break into people’s homes to steal money just to pay for alcohol, I don’t want our local community to be part of that, I have heard of those people for the past 20 years.

“There is nothing against that particular shop, but please do not destroy what we built, me and Bargain Booze, for the past 20 years.

“We stick to that promise we made to each other, I won’t sell alcohol before 11 o’clock.”

Summarising, he said: “I am asking you, please do not allow a shop to sell alcohol in our area from eight o’clock in the morning.”

Before making a decision on the application, Cllr Mgbeokwere said: “From what I’ve heard about what you’ve said, it’s about community.

“It’s protecting that community and working together, there is space for everybody.

“With your 21 years’ experience there’s always room to help smaller businesses to show this is the way it works in the community.

“It’s all about supporting each other. Having said that, we’ve listened to you and everything that you’ve had to say.”

The panel decided to grant the premises licence to Pigwa International Grocery.