A Walthamstow pizza takeaway can now stay open until 4am seven nights a week after Waltham Forest Council's licensing committee approved its application on Monday 5 October.
Tops Pizza, on Lea Bridge Road, asked the council to push its weekday closing time back from 2am to 4am. Until now it was only licensed to close at 4am on Fridays and Saturdays.
At the hearing, a representative from the takeaway chain told councillors the later close would help the business hold its own against stiff competition.
"It is still tough for our business. We are not as big as the other boys," he said. "It's been a struggle for the company to pay the bills."
He said there was demand for later hours, pointing to other Tops Pizza branches that trade until 5am.
Here's how the objections worked. Eight residents living nearby wrote in against the plan, even though the company reported no official complaints on record. Although Tops will only handle online deliveries from 2am onwards, residents were worried about late-night disruption from customers and delivery drivers.
"This is not Soho or a nightlife district and a fast-food takeaway open until 4am every night is completely out of place here," one local wrote. Others said the early-morning close would "significantly change" the character of a largely residential area, and another called the proposal "totally unreasonable".
In response, the applicant told councillors the takeaway had been trading since 2022 with "no issues from any of our neighbours". He added that the two delivery drivers working each night would use electric cars, which he said cuts both noise and environmental harm.
None of the objectors came along to the morning meeting to make their case in person.
After a brief deliberation, the three councillors on the committee, two Green and one Labour, voted to approve the new licence.
Tops Pizza was founded in 1988 and has 85 franchises across the country, around 15 of them in London.
