NEIGHBOURS fear the noise and smell from a new shisha café in East Finchley will make life “intolerable”.

Oasis café, which opened two months ago in Church Lane, wants to extend its outdoor area so 43 people can sit and smoke shisha pipes. The plans would involve removing the area's current roof.

Based in the former Alexandra pub, the café is also seeking planning permission to stay open until 1.30am at weekends and 11.30pm on weekdays.

But Rebecca Cooper, whose garden in Leopold Road backs onto the cafe, said she worried about the impact it would have on the health of her three-year-old twins.

She said: “It is the noise and the smell. Everybody has children along here, and children’s bedrooms back on to it. It will affect families and a primary school. I don’t have anything against the restaurant or smoking shisha – I just don’t want it at the end of my garden.

“Life is stressful as it is, but this will just make it intolerable and unbearable.”

The 45-year-old said shisha was being smoked there already.

She added: “At the moment, take away the shisha element and it is a nice outdoor restaurant, as long as it is not too noisy.

“It is better than people out there in the open puffing away, playing music. We will have everybody leaving at 1.30am, doors slamming, cars driving. My children will not get any sleep.”

Planning officers have recommended the proposals are approved – but environmental health officers say they should be rejected because of noise and smell complaints, “particularly during the summer months when residents are likely to keep windows open and sit in their gardens”.

Barnet Council’s planning committee was due to make a decision tonight (October 28), but it has been postponed while officers review a noise report.

Matt Rudge, 36, also of Leopold Road, said: “None of the residents want these highly toxic pipes. It is going into children’s gardens where they play. There are children’s bedrooms facing the area, and they will allow smoking till 11.30pm. These poor families will have it every day and night.

“The noise and disturbance of 40 plus people, it will be too much. It is also opposite a primary school.

“There is a gap between the back of the shisha café and Leopold Road, but it is about five metres by the plans. We are talking about smoke and noise, which does not dissipate, going into residential gardens because they will be smoking day and night.”

Mr Rudge, a documentary maker, added: “This is a completely new use and will change the area for residents.”

But Michael Koutra, who is representing the owners on behalf of MSK Design, said they wanted to work with the community.

He said: “The owner of the Oasis restaurant is seeking to integrate within the community, as he would like to get on with his neighbours.

“The premises has been received well by many of the locals, who have welcomed this business. For many others, it seems that the presence of this business is nothing but a nuisance.

“We do have a concern over how the restaurant owner is being portrayed by the group of objectors within the community, who are failing to see that he is trying to work with everyone to make this restaurant part of the local community.”

Mr Koutra added: “We urge the objectors to respond to our call for an open meeting as addressed in our letter sent out last week, so that their concerns could be discussed amongst all and potentially addressed in a far quicker manner.”

On the issue of noise, he said: “It is however worth noting that the rear gardens of the dwellings in Leopold Road are not backing onto the any of the commercial premises along Church Lane, including the Oasis Restaurant as there is a strip of land physically separating them.”

The application is due to go to the planning committee meeting on November 26.