A wood-fired pizza van, known as One Pizza, will be relocating from Thornbury High Street to a pub car park due to parking complications. The business, run by Italian cousins Esra Koroglu and Ayse Ozer, was granted a street trading licence outside The Black Horse by South Gloucestershire councillors, despite objections from local residents.
The duo, who specialise in hand-stretched Neapolitan pizzas made with fresh local ingredients, already operate at several locations around the district, trading one day a week at each site. Their application faced opposition from four neighbours, who raised concerns about litter, vermin, traffic issues, food smells, and suspicions that the business would target schoolchildren on their way home.
In May last year, Esra and Ayse received permission to set up their business on Thornbury High Street, which had been partially pedestrianised as part of a contentious £4.6million council project. However, they submitted a new application to trade from the Black Horse pub in Gillingstool instead, after customer parking became problematic in the town centre, the licensing sub-committee was informed on Monday, January 6.
One resident who objected told councillors in a written statement: “The main road (Gillingstool) is a main artery into/out of Thornbury and on the town’s main bus route. The road will clog easily if people park on the kerbside.
“We already have a problem with rubbish discarded on the path leading away from the Murco petrol station. My concern is that this will significantly increase with the presence of a pizza van five days per week. I see only downsides and risks, with no upside.
A neighbour wrote: “I have had occasional nuisance from the pub including a drunkard who fell through my gate (breaking it) at 1.30am, other noise and associated overflow parking. Additional rolling footfall wouldn’t be welcome.
“Litter is a concern and our local bins are often rammed as it is. The High Street is a more sensible location if it’s felt the town needs further fast-food provision.”
Another wrote: “There will be an increase of rubbish and food waste, which will encourage vermin within the local vicinity.” But the panel heard no complaints had been received about the other sites since the business opened three years ago and the van had a five-star food hygiene rating.
Esra told the meeting that although their trading hours would be 3pm to 9pm, this included time to set up before serving, so they would not be serving school pupils walking home. She said: “Our target market is families during dinner times.
“We have never seen antisocial behaviour at any of our locations.” Esra said that after parking became an issue on the High Street, they wanted to move to a site nearer their customers, so chose the pub car park in a residential area with the agreement of The Black Horse’s landlord.
The Black Horse pub in Thornbury
(Image: Google Maps)
“If we are successful today, we will give up our High Street licence,” Esra said. She said the wood-fired oven produced minimal smoke and that the van would not cause an obstruction or create extra traffic because most customers pre-ordered and that it took just three minutes to cook a pizza, so people would not be there for long.
Esra said they always picked up any litter at the end of their shift, even if it was not theirs. She said that although the application was to trade from Tuesday to Saturday, that was only to give them flexibility if they needed to change their trading day in any week because of family priorities but that they would only be there one day per week.
There were no objections from any of the authorities, including the town council.