A BUSINESSMAN who has brought three successful new restaurants to Newport in six years, says he may be forced to move away because of council restrictions.

Iftekhar Haris has opened La Bamba - the first Mexican restaurant in Gwent, Bombay Bicycle Club Indian restaurant and Over The Top (OTT) Noodle Bar, since moving to Newport.

But Mr Haris said he has had problems extending the opening hours of his premises and that La Bamba was only allowed to open until 1am after the same time was granted for the new Edwards pub opposite.

Now, city centre planners have recommended that his application to open OTT, in Market Street, until 2am, Wednesday to Saturday, should be refused.

The council's planning committee is due to decide today. Mr Haris said: "Closing early is probably good for costs, encouraging people to drink a lot in a short space of time, but I don't think that's the right way to treat people.

"Being restricted to opening until 1am I can't fulfil my goal of giving people somewhere they can stay all night."

He opened OTT to cater for a niche market and, in addition to being a restaurant, there is an art gallery, salsa, rock and disco evenings, and poetry reading.

Mr Haris said: "There's not much in the way of good quality entertainment in Newport, but I can't do everything that I want here.

"I've dedicated the best part of my life to the Newport, but I'm considering moving to Cardiff or Bristol.

"In Cardiff they've got 40 days and 40 nights of free entertainment, but in Newport we celebrated becoming a city with Proms in the Park - there was nothing for young people. They are not trying to enhance leisure activity in this city.

"In Cardiff, Swansea and Bristol you get some clubs open until 4am and special nights until 6am, so you've got a couple of hours after they stop selling alcohol to dance and work off the alcohol and energy so you are ready to go home."

He said other premises in his part of Newport, such as Quids, Mustang Sally and Ba Rhumba, were already open until 2am.

Planners recommended the application be turned down because of concern about the increasing numbers of premises opening late with the potential for large groups of people hanging around at night to the detriment of residents.

There have been no objections from residents so far. A spokeswoman for Newport council said they did not want to comment until after a decision had been made at tomorrow's planning committee meeting.