KFC on Western Road, Brighton, wants to serve delivery orders until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays and 1am on Monday to Thursday nights. A council licensing panel is listed to consider it on Tuesday 10 November 2026.
Nine residents have objected, mostly over delivery rider noise and anti-social behaviour. The council papers show that no police or council team lodged an objection, and that the franchise operator has offered extra conditions.
Here is what is being asked for, what residents say, and what the operator has offered.
The application in key facts
The restaurant at 63-65 Western Road is run by K&Z Newhaven Ltd, a KFC franchise operator that says it has run the site for more than 10 years. It applied to vary the premises licence, reference 2026/02157/LAPREV.
The licence was issued in 2017. It covers late-night refreshment, which means hot food or drink sold between 11pm and 5am, from 11pm to midnight every day. The restaurant is open to customers from 11am to midnight.
What KFC is asking for
The change would stretch the late-night food permission from midnight to 1am on Monday to Thursday nights, and to 3am on Friday and Saturday nights.
The applicant says customers will still be let into the restaurant only until midnight, as now. After that, it says the shop would work as a collection point for delivery riders, taking orders from approved delivery apps.
The applicant also says the restaurant has already run to 2am on seven nights this summer using temporary event notices, on 13, 27 and 30 June and 4, 6, 11 and 19 July, with no complaints brought to its attention.
Hours now and hours asked
Sunday is not mentioned in the application as described in the papers, so we have shown it as unchanged.
What residents say
The council received nine objections, sent between 6 and 16 July 2026. Several are from people who live on or near Western Road. The papers do not name them.
The main worries are noise from delivery riders arriving, waiting and leaving, anti-social behaviour, littering and loitering. Residents describe scooters and bikes parking at the end of nearby streets and say the area is increasingly residential. Some raise road safety, with riders speeding or blocking sight lines at junctions. One says there is chicken bone litter in the street.
One objector says the restaurant is in a cumulative impact area and that the application does not explain how riders will be managed or where they will wait, or how kitchen extraction will cope after midnight. They ask the panel to refuse it or, if it grants it, to add strict conditions. Another asks the council to look at the opening hours advertised on KFC’s website, which they say differ from the licence. They make no allegation of wrongdoing and say there may be an innocent explanation.
Most objections are on the grounds of preventing public nuisance. Several also cite preventing crime and disorder.
What the operator has offered
In its written submission the applicant accepts some of the residents’ concerns have merit. It says the restaurant has had no complaints from the council or neighbours about its operation, and proposes new conditions on top of its five existing ones, which cover a store diary, CCTV, signs, a no glass policy and waste.
It also lists operating standards it says it will follow, including CCTV kept for 31 days, a trained late-night duty manager, at least three staff on at all times, no cash in tills, no one under 18 working late, and delivery riders showing ID to get in. Police raised the Brighton Crime Reduction Partnership. The applicant says it already belongs and is content for that to become a condition.
No objection from police or the council
The applicant points out that none of the responsible authorities lodged a representation, including Sussex Police and the council’s environmental protection and licensing teams. It argues that means they do not see evidence of harm.
It also argues that the council’s licensing policy favours a good operator seeking a variation, and says the council licensing authority has confirmed it counts as one. The council’s own view will be in its report to the panel.
The applicant says that if any problem arises later, a licence review is the fix. Residents who object say the area already has too much late-night delivery activity.
What we do not know
The date. The papers on the council website carry a cover dated Thursday 1 October 2026, but the council lists the item for Tuesday 10 November at 10am, online. We have not found a decision from 1 October and do not know why the hearing moved.
The council report. The council’s own report to the panel was not published when we wrote this, so we have only the objections and the applicant’s submission.
The outcome. The decision had not been made when we wrote this.
For more licensing hearings, read our reports on the Sushi Co Western Road licence and the Taco Bell London Road bid, and our guide to Western Road.
ImJustBrighton note: everything above comes from the Brighton and Hove City Council Licensing Panel papers. The applicant’s claims are its own and the residents’ views are theirs, and none has been tested at a hearing.
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