The CEO Lounge was the subject of a Barking and Dagenham Council licensing sub-committee meeting last week, which reviewed a premises licence application to extend its hours until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, as well as sell alcohol and play music until 2.30am.
The review took place because of an objection from a resident, who submitted a representation to the committee that they were impacted by “repeated disturbances” from customers leaving the restaurant at weekends and that groups congregate outside it in “a rowdy and aggressive manner”.
Members of the public are invited to comment on premises licence applications such as this one through public notices, published in this paper and on the Public Notice Portal website.
The government is planning to scrap laws requiring alcohol licensing notices to be published in printed local newspapers.
This change would mean that plans such as this one for an existing venue to change its opening hours, or for the opening of a new pub or nightclub, would be hidden from local communities.
Victor Binitie of The CEO Lounge(Image: Barking and Dagenham Council)
This could mean that venues which have the potential to cause disturbance and nuisance to residents could have applications approved unchallenged without the public knowing a thing about them.
Victor Binitie, director of The CEO Lounge, did not take kindly to our reporting of the objection made to the committee and our scrutiny of his application.
Here is what he said during the meeting and our response:
Mr Binitie personally criticised our reporter Charlotte Anderson and this paper, accusing her of negative reporting not based in fact and said we have singled out his restaurant for disproportionate, negative coverage.
Before this meeting, we have published six stories on The CEO Lounge since November 2024 – and only one since January.
These have all either been based upon a public notice application, council reports or meetings, a police statement to us, Facebook posts from The CEO Lounge or comments issued to us by The CEO Lounge.
Included among these was a story that the restaurant was planning to open and another with photos inside the restaurant after its opening.
All of the stories have been reported fairly and accurately, with reports of a previous licence application again needing to go to committee after police and residents’ concerns. We subsequently reported on the application being granted.
The most recent story in September reporting the resident’s objection included Mr Binitie’s statement in response and he declined to comment further when we gave him the opportunity.
Mr Binitie is absolutely entitled to his opinion about our coverage but personally naming a reporter and criticising her for doing her job is extremely disappointing, especially in the current climate where journalists often face abuse.
He also claimed we do not run stories on other pubs and restaurants in the borough.
Just last week, we published a story about the refurbishment of The Three Travellers pub in Dagenham.
We have run previous reports on licence applications referred to the council’s licensing sub-committee already this year – relating to illegal workers being found at shops in Barking and Dagenham.
We have also published stories on notices from the Public Notice Portal, which is owned and operated by the News Media Association, the voice of UK national, regional, and local newspapers in all their print and digital forms.
Created by local news publishers and supported by the Google News Initiative, the portal carries statutory public notices published in local newspapers and is the fastest and most effective way of finding out what is happening in your neighbourhood.
These include an alcohol licence application from a venue last month, one from a takeaway restaurant in June, as well as two notices last month concerning planned roadworks.
Mr Binitie also says we did not get permission from him to use his image – this is only necessary when he owns the photo – and did not name the resident who objected to the application.
The resident’s name was redacted from the council document accompanying the meeting so they could not be named.
We offer nothing but best wishes to The CEO Lounge and all of the borough’s businesses and want to see them thrive – but we hope we’ve made clear why our reporting is important and why scrutiny of such applications is vital.
