A café has been told it can sell alcohol to customers, but that drinks must be kept inside.

Concerns had been raised after the owners of the Little Piggy Café in High Street, Fenstanton, asked for permission to sell alcohol.

Some neighbours argued this could cause more anti-social behaviour and noise in the area as a result.

However, Huntingdonshire District Council agreed to grant the licence to sell alcohol, but added a restriction that customers could not drink alcohol in the outdoor seating area.

Charlotte McLoughlin told councillors at a licensing sub-committee meeting on July 9 that the cafe had been very popular since she opened it in 2023.

She explained that they mostly served breakfast and lunch, but had expanded to offering a Sunday lunch, and had held a few evening dinner events.

Ms McLoughlin said she had applied for Temporary Event Notices (TENs) in order to sell alcohol at these evening dinners, and now was asking for a licence in order to hold more of the events.

She said: “[The evening dinners] have been really well received and we get questions all the time from customers about when we will do more.

“About 70 per cent of customers attending the pop up events are from the village of Fenstanton, so they are walking to the event and they are asking all the time when we will do more.

“We are very proud of what we do, being a part of the local community is really important to us and we want to do the best job we can do.

“It is important to us that the local residents are on board and happy with what we do, so it is disappointing that some of the local residents are not 100 per cent happy or have got complaints and objections.

“We would like to do whatever we can do to address that.”

Concerns about the use of the outdoor seating area were also raised by environmental health officers.

The sub-committee considered the licence application and the objections in private, with a decision later being published on the district council’s website.

The authority agreed to grant the alcohol licence, but said customers could not have the drinks outside.

The decision notice said: “The applicant has already had 10 events under Temporary Event Notices with limited complaints.

“We took into account the concerns raised by environmental health services regarding the lack of adequate safety measures in place for the outside seating area.

“The use of the outdoor sitting area is likely to exacerbate the level of noise outside the premises.”