'Weapons' Picnic tables removed from chip shop following licensing blow

Picnic benches which the police warned could be “used as weapons’ have been removed from outside a Weston-super-Mare fish and chip shop.

- John WIMPERIS

The blue picnic benches have now been removed from the front of the Waterfront Fish Bar in Weston-super-Mare

The Waterfront Fish Bar bought the blue recycled plastic picnic tables in the summer as they would not get blown away on the windy seafront.

But North Somerset Council refused to give the fish restaurant permission to keep them in its seating area on the pedestrianised section of Regent Street after an intervention by the police.

Police licensing officer Andy Manhire told a licensing hearing about the tables on September 2: “Any furniture that’s left can be used as weapons during the high risk late hours. {_] They could be thrown or moved, thereby causing a danger to pedestrians or vehicles.”