A bar and restaurant has had its opening hours cut after its former owner apologised for repeatedly breaching a noise abatement notice.

Lounge 44, in Chatham High Street, which specialised in Nigerian cuisine, was the subject of a Medway Council licence review following complaints about loud, bassy music being played by a DJ.

The former owners previously told how they believed they were being unfairly treated by the council.

The council’s environmental protection team requested the licence review for the eatery – which claimed to be the county’s only late-night African bar and restaurant – after a neighbour made a number of complaints about the noise.

The council’s licensing hearing panel met on Tuesday, April 25 to carry out the review, during which it was revealed the premises has been sold to new owners who will take over this coming weekend.

They aim to run it as an Afro-Caribbean restaurant.

Fiona Wilson, environmental protection technician, explained she was not asking for the restaurant’s licence to be revoked, but for the licence to be restricted to between 11am and 11.30pm every day, which councillors agreed to.

These had been the hours of operation before Kingsley Atuanya - who opened the establishment almost three years ago during the pandemic - successfully requested for an extension of the licence so it could remain open later, selling food and alcohol, and host DJ sets as late as 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Ms Wilson explained it was these DJ sets featuring loud, bassy music which made council officers begin investigating the restaurant in October 2021 over the course of 18 months.

They found how on some occasions, the music had been going on beyond the operating hours.

They served Mr Atuanya with a noise abatement notice which was breached and the council warned him it could pursue legal proceedings.

Ms Wilson said: “My investigation shows that Mr Atuanya has continued to have regulated entertainment which is having a detrimental effect on nearby residents and is causing a nuisance.

“The premises is advertised as a restaurant, bar and grill, however, is operated like a nightclub in the later hours of the evening.”

Councillors were played recordings of the music coming from the restaurant which were taken at a neighbouring property.

Ms Wilson read out a statement from the restaurant’s neighbour, Vlad Dumitru, who said the noise was “ruining my life and my family’s life.”

He added how the noise was making his daughter feel anxious and unsettled.

Licensing consultant Graham Hopkins, working on behalf of Mr Atuanya, pointed out how Lounge 44 has a flat above it with a family living in it, who did not have any issues living there and wrote to the council in support of the business.

He asked councillors whether the late night licences could be retained so the new owners could make use of them, and play background music on the restaurant’s ground floor and amplified music only in the restaurant’s basement after 11pm through the use of a sound limiter.

He said: “This is a restaurant for people of Afro-Caribbean origin.

“We are supposed to be an inclusive society, we have to cater for everybody and that includes people from the Afro-Caribbean community who bring so much to our country.”

Addressing Mr Dumitru’s complaints, he said: “Anyone living in a town centre in a busy High Street - in this case next to a restaurant - has to accept there will be some noise disturbance.”

He added how Mr Atuanya apologised to the council for having the abatement notice served on him and for breaching it.