TESCO has been forced to apply for emergency legislation to keep its new Hermiston Gait store open after 11pm after bosses neglected to obtain a late licence for the premises.
A sign outside states that the store is open until midnight, but all premises serving food of any description are required to apply for a late hours catering licence (LHC).
LHCs can take up to six months to process and the store would have to op
erate with truncated hours for the duration of that time, so Tesco has applied for an emergency exemption normally given to premises seeking a late licence for short period of time such as the Festival or Christmas period to plug the gap.
The move has fallen foul of the local community council, which has accused Tesco of "abusing" the law to cover its mistake.
Taxi driver Keith Bell, secretary and licensing spokesman of the Sighthill, Broomhouse & Parkhead Community Council, said: "If I forgot to apply for my taxi licence I would be forced off the road and be told to wait until it was processed. There's no exemptions which allow me to continue trading, so why should it be any different for Tesco?"
Mr Bell's objection has forced the council's licensing sub-committee to consider the application closely at its next meeting.
The full article contains 227 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
