An expanding high street discount store has agreed to limit its proposed opening times. The Home Bargains on Bury Road in Breightmet is in the process of expanding into the old Morrisons supermarket next door. The store had originally bid for a licence to sell alcohol for up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but has now scaled this back to just from 7am to 11pm instead.
Cllr Sean Fielding, of Breightmet, said: "This is a victory for common sense. “While Home Bargains said they weren't going to open to sell alcohol 24/7, I still wanted to have the additional reassurance in the form of licensing restrictions that would prevent them from ever doing so in future. The licencing bid was made to Bolton Council (Image: Newsquest) "An alcohol licence from 7am to 11pm is still longer than I would like, but in consultation with Breightmet and Blackshaw Neighbourhood Watch and local residents, I've withdrawn my complaint and accepted this compromise.
" Home Bargains has been working on expanding into the former Morrisons site since the supermarket closed last September. Morrisons had announced its plans to close before saying that the company had found the Breightmet branch to be “unviable". But the expanded Home Bargains has promised it will be "almost double the original size" with a café and instore bakery.
They say that it will also create around 50 new jobs. The original licencing bid, entered on Tuesday, July 23 this year, had seen Home Bargains apply to the council for the right to sell alcohol for off premises drinking. This would have given the store the right to do so for all hours of the day from Monday to Sunday, but in practice the actual opening hours could have been shorter than this.
The previous opening times were from 8am to 8pm from Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays. ALSO READ: Expanding high street store's bid for '24/7' alcohol licence runs into opposition ALSO READ: Expanding high street store bids for '24/7 alcohol' licence ALSO READ: Date set for Home Bargains' Breightmet opening at Morrisons The attempt to extend the opening hours prompted opposition from Cllr Fielding and others who warned that this could have let the store become a “24 hour off licence by the back door". The last date for representations to be made to the council about the licencing bid is August 20.
The expanded Home Bargains is expected to open on Sunday, November 24. TJ Morris Ltd, which trades as Home Bargains, has been approached for comment..
