Worthing restaurant bar Karma Lounge granted fresh premises licence

The Karma Lounge, in Tarring Road, closed in February, less than two years after it opened, when its previous licence was withdrawn.

During a meeting of the borough council’s licensing committee, owner Omar Rafique was granted a new licence.

As a result, the Karma Lounge will be allowed to open from 9am to 11pm all week and will be able to sell alcohol from 11am to 11pm.

On New Year’s Eve, it will be allowed to open from 9am to 1.30am, with alcohol available until 1am.

Before the Karma Lounge moved in, the site was used by a second-hand furniture store.

The change in the type of business did not go down well with locals.

The committee heard concerns from residents who said they had made complaints about noise and loud music coming from the Karma Lounge and described times when patrons were ‘drunk’ and using ‘foul and abusive language’.

One reported that the behaviour spilled out into the street and could be ‘quite intimidating’.

Another felt residents were not being listened to when making complaints, adding: “Life in the last 18 months has been full of worry about what they’re going to do next and what we’re going to have this weekend.”

As well as the Karma Lounge, Mr Rafique owns the Karma on the Beach restaurant, in Marine Parade, and the Angels bar and club, in the High Street.

He said he had received no noise complaints from the environmental health team and felt that noise should not be an issue anyway when deciding whether to grant him a premises licence.

Mr Rafique said there was signage in place asking people to keep the noise down when they left the lounge but added: “When they leave the premises, there’s not a great deal we can do, to be fair.

“I genuinely believe we’ve done a reasonably good job – nobody’s perfect in life – but we’ve done a reasonably good job in [operating].”

He called on the committee to ‘let us have our licence and get on with life’.