UPDATE: Agreement has been reached with Liverpool ONE and Liverpool City Council and the Calcotada will take place this Sunday, March 24.
LIVERPOOL restaurant and deli Lunya says a planned Spanish-themed food event will go ahead this Sunday - despite it being “absolutely forbidden” on health and safety grounds by landlords Liverpool ONE.
Last year's Calçotada pavement barbecue attracted crowds of passers-by and tourists to the restaurant on College Lane.
Lunya owner Peter Kinsella says the street is in “desperate need of events like this” with the lowest footfall of shoppers on the retail shopping estate.
A Calçotada is a Catalan food festival that takes place in streets all over Spain, in March. It celebrates the calçot, which is similar to a leek or a spring onion.
Heaps of them are tipped onto a charcoal grill until the outer skins are charred. Then they are presented in newspaper with a dipping sauce.
Calçotada At Lunya gets thumbs up from Spanish passers-by
Last year's event – the first UK Calçotada outside London - was praised by shoppers who were handed the free calçots on the streets. A group of Spanish tourists even stopped to give the spectacle a round of applause, while Liverpool One staff who attended were keen to show their approval, Mr Kinsella says.
But now officials at the Grosvenor-owned retail estate (the largest in Europe) say smoke from last year's barbecue gave rise to “numerous complaints” from neighbouring stores and residents who were “clearly affected by it”.
In a letter to Lunya owner Peter Kinsella they say that because of this – and health and safety fears - they cannot allow it to go ahead.
'Baffled'
Mr Kinsella, who runs several Catalunyan-themed events at the restaurant throughout the year, says Lunya received not a single complaints before, during or after last year's Calcotada, and he is convinced that nobody complained to Liverpool ONE either.
“I'm baffled as to why they've taken this line, to be honest,” he told Liverpool Confidential. “A calcot contains no fat, so for a start they don't give off smoke.
“If there had have been any complaints about the barbecue, they would have told us straight away. They wouldn't wait a whole year."
“Last year, one of their redcoats told us to move a display on similar grounds and I tweeted, in Lunya's twitter account, that it was 'health and safety gone mad'. Another warden came in almost immediately and asked us to take the tweet down,” he says.
Mr Kinsella was keen to stress, however, that normally Lunya has an excellent relationship with its landlord and he hoped the present dispute would not affect that.
But the row once again raises the debate on who owns the streets.
'Legal'
Mr Kinsella claims he knows his onions where Liverpool ONE's powers begin and ends, saying the pavement licence Lunya holds for events is with Liverpool City Council and not with Liverpool ONE.
“Their ownership of the street ends at Flannels,” he said. “So although they can tell us about health and safety inside our premises, they have no jurisdiction over what we do outside.
Peter Kinsella, left, says the feast will go on
“There is no way we aren't going ahead with this,” he insisted. “We don't think they have the right to tell us what we can do on our terrace as long it is legal and ethical."
He went on: “Calçots come from a town in northern Spain called Valls. We have enough coming over to Liverpool from there, later this week, to feed 1,000 people – and feed 1,000 people we will.
“Public places are for the people. We think this sort of event helps prevent the Liverpool One space being too corporate, and helps promote it as a place for independent businesses."
In a statement, Liverpool One said: “We are always open to ideas from Liverpool ONE retailers that will support their businesses, enliven the streets and enhance the experience for visitors.
“However, on this occasion the proposed barbecue poses health and safety implications for shoppers in the street outside Lunya. The safety of our shoppers is of paramount importance to us and it has been necessary to decline requests for barbecues from other restaurants in the past due to health and safety concerns.
“We also have a duty to look after the interests of all of our retailers. The obvious effect of smoke in neighbouring clothing stores and the resulting damage to garments is potentially harmful to other businesses.
“We love the enterprising attitude that Lunya has and we look forward to supporting them with future events.”
2012's Calçotada was the first in the north west. It remains to be seen if it will also be the last.
*Calçotada, Lunya, College Lane, Sunday March 17, noon-5pm, maybe.
