PLANS for a new restaurant in Wellington town centre have been welcomed by councillors.

The support came despite one councillor having reservations about giving the restaurant a license to allow alcohol to be sold and taken off the premises as early as 9am.

Members of Wellington Town Council’s planning committee met on October 7 to discuss an application for a premises license at the Our Embassy restaurant on the corner of High Street and South Street which was previously the Kaffee Klatsch bakery and before that Shauls Bakery.

The license details include the sale of alcohol on and off the premises from 9am to 10pm daily, as well as playing recorded music between 6pm to 8pm Monday to Wednesday, 5pm to 9pm Thursday to Saturday and from 12pm to 10pm on Sunday.

Cllr John Thorne said he was concerned about the applicants wanting to have a license to allow alcohol to be taken off the premises between 9am and 10pm.

“I think it’s wrong that people could buy alcohol and take it off the premises from 9am in the morning,” he said. “I think there would be problems in the town centre because of this.”

Cllr Andrew Govier said: “I understand what Cllr Thorne is saying, but people can already go to the Co-op store and buy cans of beer in the morning.”

He inferred that it would not be the cheapest option either to buy alcohol from a restaurant rather than a supermarket.

“I don’t think people would necessarily just walk into a restaurant, buy a bottle of beer and walk out again when they can quite easily go to the Co-op,” he said.

Councillors agreed that the take-away licensing was needed so that diners, perhaps, could take home with them a half-empty bottle of wine they had bought at the end of a meal.

Cllr Govier added: “I’m looking forward to seeing that building, which has been a bit of a blot on the landscape for a long time, coming back into use. I would support this.”

The former Kaffee Klatsch bakery had repeatedly come under fire as an “eyesore” after the business owners left the building vacant in 2022 without explanation or notice just a few weeks after opening.

Before that it had been left empty for another couple of years when Shauls Bakery closed when the first national lockdown was introduced in March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic with the company falling into administration.

Councillors hope that the new Our Embassy restaurant – which specialises in African food – will have a successful future.

But they did say they were disappointed that they could not find more detailed information about the licensing application on Somerset Council’s website.

Councillors did recommend, however, that the license should be granted.

Our Embassy had a trial event recently where people could have a taste of its planned menu, but a message on its social media page said it was still working on its South African and Nigerian dishes based on feedback it had received.