A bar in Orpington has been denied permission to extend its opening hours as neighbours claim the noise already coming from the space is already ‘unbearable’.

Sjayz Restaurant on Orpington High Street has had its application to stay open until 2am rejected by Bromley Council.

The venue had applied to stay open until midnight from Sunday to Thursday and until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights.

The space is currency licensed to operate until 10pm on Sundays and 11pm on Saturdays and throughout the week.

The topic was discussed at a licensing meeting for Bromley Council on April 22.

Mr Awa said that he had applied for the extended hours after noticing customers appeared to prefer coming to the restaurant after 9pm.

Council officers confirmed a planning application had also been sent by the business for the extended hours, but it had not been validated by the authority yet.

Council documents said two separate noise complaints had been received by the authority regarding the venue in February this year, leading to council officers visiting the premises.

Obasi Awa, who owns the restaurant with his wife, said that these complaints occurred when the restaurant was hosting special one-off events when he was given permission by the council to stay open later.

Mr Awa said at the meeting: “It is not a nightclub or a lounge… The point is, on the occasions that they did complain, I had a temporary event notice. That was when I had the grand opening and when I had a birthday party.

"That’s when there were officers from Bromley Council because it was a temporary event notice. On a normal day, what we have is normal background music.”

Jonathan Pestana, who lives above the restaurant and had previously complained to the council, said the sound on the night of his complaint was ‘unbearable’.

He added that he had been contacting Mr Awa by phone since the venue opened last December to ask him to turn down the volume of the music in the space.

Mr Pestana said at the meeting: “I’ve found this really disrespectful to all of us. We live in the building plus my partner is pregnant as well.

"With one of these kinds of threats going on in our lives we cannot enjoy being in the living room with the loud music and sometimes I need to do work on the laptop and I can’t do it. I’ve been suffering from this for the last three months because the music is too loud.”

Residents said there were four flats above the restaurant with families including young children.

Daniella Santos, Mr Pestana’s partner, said that the couple could sometimes hear the music from the premises while they were in their bedrooms on the second floor of their flat.

Ms Santos said at the meeting: “I’m just stressed with this because I’ve been dealing with this for so long.

"I tried to do this in a friendly way and for me at this point it is impossible to communicate with [Mr Awa] because I think he does not have any consideration for the people living above his restaurant.”

Mr Awa claimed the two complaints had occurred when soundproofing for the venue had not been fully completed, and that he had since moved the speakers in the restaurant so that they were not directly below the residential flats above.

He confirmed with council officers that the space’s soundproofing had been completed on March 26.

Chima Awa, an architect working for the restaurant, said at the meeting: “I think the spirit with which we came to this hearing is that of cooperation.

"Our disposition is not to inconvenience our neighbours or make their lives difficult. We’ve already taken steps and we’re prepared to take further steps to make sure that their lives are comfortable.”

He added: “The reason why we’ve applied for this extension is so that the business will notice the trend in the clientele and our customers and when they come. We think that for the business to thrive, we need to have an extension. This is a responsible business.”

The licensing committee decided at the meeting to refuse permission for Sjayz Restaurant to extend its opening hours.

The committee stated that the planning application for the restaurant should be reviewed before a licensing decision can be made and that the 2am closing time on a residential high street was not appropriate.