Save the Bombetta trailer

Save Our Trailer!

Bombetta London, is proud to be based in Wanstead and grateful to be voted by its customers as an Opentable Dinner's Choice award and reviewed by Time Out as one of the best Italian restaurants in London, and with glowing reviews in GQ Magazine, The Evening Standard as well as featuring in The Good Food Guide for the last 2 years.

Buying fish locally from people in Wanstead, such as Kevin the fishmonger, bread from Ronnie who owns The Duke and The Bread Station and a regular feature in silent auctions and raffles to support local schools, we now need local support.

The Bombetta Trailer has now been parked up in our own loading bay, not causing anyone any problems since June 2017!

Now in these difficult economic times, our small little independent restaurant is being squeezed by the council.

Our trailer is under threat and we are calling for the local community to help us by showing their support for our trailer to be parking in our own loading bay. The council are limiting our ability to use the space we lease and it will threaten the commercial viability of the business.
The Background:

- Station Approach is a privately owned road on which Bombetta London is based, leading from Wanstead High Road to Snaresbrook Station.

- There are loading bays in front of the building for the exclusive use of the occupier, us.

- We invested heavily to develop the site from an empty shell which had prior to our arrival, remained vacant for some time. This space is directly in front of our restaurant and forms part of our 20 year lease.

- The site was awarded a restaurant A3 planning permission and was purpose built with that in mind, with a chimney fume extract point through the centre of the building. Therefore thoughts about the use and practicality of the loading bay, which is in front of the front door, perhaps were lacking.

- Our alcohol licence covers any seating in the ‘loading bay area’ and recognises these practical issues.

- Initially Bombetta London took on the lease and applied several times to pave the area as the exclusive user of the space, but this was rejected on the grounds that it made the road narrower. Bombetta spent thousands of pounds with various appeals but to no avail, as in addition to utilising the space more effectively, it also would make the area more safe.

- Since this time new buildings have been granted planning permission making the road narrow by default anyway, to house a taxi office and initially and laundrette, now a coffee kiosk.

- In addition the car spaces opposite the Bombetta London loading bay have been removed, making the public highway wider than the buildings that were approved.

- Bombetta London also rents three parking spaces on the road for its staff and customers and for deliveries so that there is no impact on the road.

- The council have previously suggested that the trailer prevents emergency vehicles accessing the station, however the restaurant has provided countless photos of emergency vehicles easily accessing the location and provided detailed vehicle sweep flow diagrams at considerable expense that show an emergency vehicle could access the station even when there were parking spaces opposite.

- The trailer can be accessed from inside the restaurant meaning that it can be used for people to sit in, adding value to the restaurant and making it safer for people to enjoy alcohol and food in the space permitted and using the space that Bombetta London are leasing more effectively.

- The trailer also protects people physically who come in and out of the restaurant space, from traffic that otherwise would be walking directly onto tarmac from the front door with free flowing traffic and is illuminated with lighting within the walls in addition to internal lights which help highlight it to drivers.

- Redbridge council last had dialogue with Bombetta London in November 2017 and have only now in March 2019 sent a letter demanding the trailers immediate removal.

- In the latest correspondence, that has come out of the blue, there is now a shift away from concentrating on the narrowness of the road and a focus on how the trailer negatively visually affects the site and area.
We adamantly disagree with the council that the our trailer parked on our loading bay is aesthetically an eyesore and should be removed on this basis. We decorate it internally with flowers, candles and fairy lights and externally with flowers and rosemary bushes all within the Load Bay area. Once spring there is here to stay, there would be fresh flowers in pots also along the base.

We rely heavily on the seating area to generate enough income to survive. We invested all our funds into developing the site, so this coupled with the length of the lease would make re-location challenging. It would also leave another location in Wanstead empty and it would be a challenging location for many businesses to occupy.

Our customers seem to love the area, the roof of the trailer slides back in the summer and as it is parked in our loading bay, if it wasn’t the trailer it could be a van still in the space or a roped off area still used for customers but far less safely.

If anyone has any influence over the Redbridge planning office or can offer any support, we really hope you’ll help us. We have until the 12th of April to put in an appeal and we are currently thinking about all our options.