Police object to drinks licence for Preston fine dining restaurant

The owners of Twist in Guildhall Street, Preston, have been invited to a hearing of the council's licensing sub-committee on Friday to decide if the recently-opened eatery should be allowed to serve alcohol.

The restaurant has been receiving good customer reviews since it opened before Christmas. Yet its application for a premises licence has hit a snag, with Lancashire Constabulary lodging a surprise objection.

The police have given little detail about the grounds for their opposition, other than to say: "We believe that, if granted, the premises would undermine the licensing objectives of crime and disorder."

The intervention has come as a surprise to the owner of Twist, Weronika Nawrot, who will be challenging the objection at Friday's hearing. She says she was "shocked" when she heard her application was being opposed.

"To be honest I don’t know what the reason of the objection is as they haven’t given any details," she told the Post. "I was shocked when I saw the objection, that’s why I put in an appeal. So hopefully we will get the licence this Friday."

Twist was launched in early December serving contemporary European dishes. At the time chef Bernard Hoti, 31, from Preston, said: "The concept behind Twist came up as I have always been trying to ‘twist’ things around, trying new things with different ideas.

"Twist will be a fine dining restaurant serving fresh food, with everything made from scratch and supplied locally. I think it will fit very well into Preston city centre as there is nothing like it."

When the restaurant opened it already had an Instagram following of more than 11,000. Its opening hours are from noon to 11pm.

As part of the application process the owners agreed to a condition which said amplified music and voice from the premises would not be played at volumes "likely to cause disturbance to nearby residential and other occupied properties within the vicinity” to prevent public nuisance.

The restaurant has CCTV and has agreed in its application to adhere to the council’s strict conditions over the sale of alcohol to customers