UP TO five jobs will be created after a Brentwood pizza takeaway was given permission to open for longer.
Papa Johns, in High Street, will be looking for new drivers, two cooks and a new manager after Brentwood Borough Council granted it a new premises licence.
The shop had previously opened from 11am until midnight, seven days a week.
However, thanks to its new licence, it is now open from 11am until 1am, seven days a week for collection, and until 3am for deliveries on Fridays and Saturdays only.
As well as pizza, the shop sells desserts and soft drinks.
Franchisee Tofur Ali, 32, said: "I am very happy because I think we are the only ones to get this so far.
"When we closed at midnight, customers would be knocking on the door asking to come in, so we could see that people wanted food."
Mr Ali said he had never had any trouble from customers and that he did not envisage any in the future.
"We've got CCTV cameras and we've also got an employee who is Security Industry Authority trained, even though our licence doesn't specify that we have to.
"We don't want to see bad things happening and if we see someone messing around then we'll tell them to behave or we will call the police."
The dad-of-four, who employs 19 people, said he takes pride in being a good neighbour. "We don't use bikes for deliveries because we don't want to upset residents with noise," he said.
"We also give a 50 per cent discount to anyone in the police, the fire and ambulance services and the Army.
"Without these people the town wouldn't be what it is."
Charity is also important to him". We raised at least £1,000 for the Brentwood Skate Park by selling slices of pizza for £1 each," he said. It's a great project because it gives the local kids something to do.
"We helped them raise the first £500,000 to open it and I'm keen to help them raise the next £500,000 to complete the project."
