Council enforcement officers have seen Wood Street Café patrons smoking cigarettes indoors on six separate visits, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter

Wood Street Café in Wood Street, Walthamstow. Credit: Google Streetview

A Walthamstow café owner will face a licensing review over reports that customers are smoking in an enclosed space.

Wood Street Café manager Fatos Tobli will go before Waltham Forest Council’s licensing committee tomorrow (30th October).

Several photographs, taken by the council’s enforcement team, show customers sitting at tables, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.

According to council documents, enforcement teams have visited the venue six times since August 2023 and found people smoking each time.

There is a small recessed area at the front of the café, which the council considers enclosed, and officers say they warned Tobli it is not suitable for smoking.

The Health Act 2006 made it illegal to smoke in such spaces in a bid to reduce the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, which can increase the risk of heart disease, lung cancer, and strokes.

The licensing team has requested the committee shutters the café for one month so staff can undergo refresher training.

In a written interview with the licensing department, company director Jetmir Dajci said the café had done “everything we should do” to prevent people from smoking.

He said no one had been allowed to smoke there for three years, and the café had put up no-smoking signs and removed ashtrays.

He added: “We have been reminding people that you are not allowed to smoke there and even banning customers from our business after they didn’t accept our rules.”

Five residents living nearby told the council they “fully supported” the licensing review.

In their formal letters to the committee, they expressed concern about the smoking, litter and allegedly antisocial behaviour from some customers. One resident wrote: “This impacts both my young children each morning and afternoon on the way to and from school – being forced to breathe in their cigarette smoke.”

Tobli was approached for comment but did not respond.

The committee, made up of three elected councillors, will decide the café’s fate tomorrow.

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.