‘We are living in misery’-community anger as Array licensing review meeting postponed by council.

Residents living near the restaurant Array in Harold Wood, are angry, fed up and feel completely let down by the council. For years they have had to put up with high levels of anti social behaviour, plus a horrific machete attack that sprawled out on to the street last year and a recent stabbing.

Now, a meeting that was due to be held on Wednesday 16 November to review Array’s licence, was postponed at the last minute by the council.

“The stabbing was a gang fight, most of us saw the fighting for ourselves as we are kept up each weekend until at least 2am due to the anti social behaviour,” a resident who did not wish to be named told the Havering Daily. “We all knew something like this was going to happen as we saw what goes on there. It clearly is not a restaurant but a nightclub. This is a residential area with families with young children and elderly residents, we do not know how they managed to get the licence to stay open until 2 am.

“Residents living near Array were all set to attended the meeting, we had our speeches planned out and had organised ourselves ready for this meeting. Many had organised child care, one family returned home from their holiday early specifically to attend this meeting, it was a meeting that we had all organised ourselves for. To cancel it at practically the last minute is appalling.”

Locals living near the restaurant are extremely angry and thoroughly fed up with the lack of support from the council.

“I send email after email and never get any response. The meeting was due to take place on Wednesday and we got told on late Monday that it had been postponed. We believe this is because council officials did not inform Array of the review meeting, more mistakes from them.

“When we looked on the council website they put up a different date from what they had then told us and then changed that date again. It really is a catalogue of disasters and amongst all this, we still have to put up with the endless anti social behaviour that goes on each week.”

Forty plus residents living in the area have already voiced their objections to the restaurant’s licence and many letters have been sent to the council objecting.

“The behaviour there is dreadful, the mass fighting with bats and other weapons, the limousines parking across our drives or turning around on our small roads. The fighting that spills out onto the road that we witness each week. It goes on and on,” continued the resident.

“The police have been very supportive and we appreciate their help. Our local councillors have also worked really hard and have helped us. We are used to it now, it starts around 2.30pm and finishes after 2am each week. We are all living in misery here and on our knees begging for help.”

Councillor Barry Mugglestone told the Havering Daily:

“This type of behaviour is completely unacceptable. Array need to be good neighbours.”

The licence review meeting is set to take place on December 1 now.