A TAKEAWAY in Bournemouth has had its licence revoked after a council officer was “obstructed” from carrying out an inspection of the premises.

Police back-up had to be called to enable senior licensing officer Sarah Rogers to examine Café Fresco during a visit in the early hours of an October morning.

And due to concerns about the way the Old Christchurch Road takeaway was managed, members of Bournemouth council’s licensing sub-committee agreed on Wednesday to revoke the premises licence.

Fresco was included in a round of inspections carried out jointly between the council and police having been a “concern for some time” that it was operating outside of the terms of its licence.

It was visited in October but licensing officers were barred from entering the building and had to call for police back-up in order to gain entry.

In a statement, Mrs Rogers said that someone who she assumed was an employee had refused to let her into the building.

“He kept his hand on the door refusing to move and allow me access,” she said.

“I tried to tell him I was an authorised officer and was allowed access to conduct an inspection.

“He shouted at me and kept repeating ‘who are you?’, ‘you are not coming through’, ‘get a written letter’ and ‘there’s nothing to see’.”

She added that during a 10-minute wait for police, she “could clearly see” people being moved down a set of stairs at the side of the building.

Once police arrived, she inspected the roof terrace and although it was empty, she said it was “clear” the room had been used.

“It was warm, there was a smell of shisha, there were burning embers in one shisha pipe apparatus and cigarette ends in a plant pot,” she said.

She added that rat droppings were also found outside the business during the inspection.

Ms Rogers had asked that the licence be changed to force it to close at midnight but solicitor Philip Day, representing the takeaway’s owner said that, if this was done, councillors “might as well close it down” permanently.

“This business relies on being a late night takeaway, not a lot goes on during the day – it does 95 per cent of its business as a takeaway,” he said.

“The original suggestion was to reduce the hours and that left me scratching my head and asking what this would achieve other than closing the premises down, as that is what it would do.”

Due to concerns about what happened during the inspection, councillors agreed to revoke the takeaway’s licence.