A popular South West London garden centre has warned it faces closure if its restaurant is not allowed to open in the evenings, after being found to have breached conditions relating to its operating hours and area.

Richmond Council's planning committee voted to take enforcement action against Petersham Nurseries on September 13 to only allow a small extension to the restaurant's opening hours.

A report by council officers said the restaurant at Petersham Nurseries, on Church Lane, was operating in breach of conditions relating to operating hours and areas of use, as outlined in planning permission granted in 2009. The site is in the Petersham Conservation Area and Metropolitan Open Land, which has the same level of protection as Green Belt.

The conditions limited the operation of the restaurant to a certain area of the site and its opening hours to 10am to 4.30pm on Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11am to 4.30pm on Sundays and not opening on Mondays. This was to protect neighbours' amenities and the Metropolitan Open Land.

But Craig Raybould, from the council's planning enforcement team, said Petersham Nurseries' website advertised the restaurant's opening hours as 12pm to 5pm on Tuesdays to Saturdays, and also in the evenings from 6.30pm to 11pm on Thursdays to Saturdays. The website advertised the opening hours on Sunday as 12pm to 5pm.

At the meeting on September 13, Mr Raybould said the restaurant area had also "evolved greatly". He said the council had received 39 complaints from residents, mainly about the operation of the restaurant "causing noise disturbance, increased traffic, harming the semi-rural character of the area and harming the openness of the Metropolitan Open Land".

Phil Villars, director of PMV Planning, said a "decision to enforce against the current activities would be so damaging to the business that it could close down". Mr Villars said he advised Petersham Nurseries on planning matters and suggested it should be allowed to open "three evenings a week so the planning status aligns with the licence granted by the council".

He said officers' report did not show any evidence of planning harms, noise disturbance, danger or congestion due to traffic or harmful light emissions. He added: "The fact is that there are significant planning benefits amounting to very special circumstances and very little harm. As such, planning law and policy says that planning permission should be granted."

Gary Mann, director at Petersham Nurseries, said the business was an important local employer with around 200 staff members. He said it made "very moderate profits" due to maintenance costs and investments in the community.

He said: "The loss of the evening revenue is not about us making less profit, it fundamentally impacts the viability of our business and ability to offer these people employment. Losing the evening trade would cause significant job losses immediately and force changes and compromises in many aspects of the brand that we're all so proud of." 

Annaliese Hughes, group operations director at Petersham Nurseries, added it was a "much-loved community asset frequented by residents, integral to tourism and internationally-renowned" with "overwhelming support" from locals.

She said: "We invest a significant amount of time and money in ensuring minimal disruption to our neighbours. The most compelling evidence to demonstrate this is the fact that we have received only two direct complaints from one neighbour in nine months. In contrast, we receive many compliments from neighbours and nearby residents of Richmond about this smooth management of those three evening supper clubs and events."

But local residents spoke in support of the council taking enforcement action against Petersham Nurseries. Geoff Bond, chair of Ham and Petersham Association and Amenities Group, said the business "has become a very significant commercial enterprise which has already far exceeded the capacity of local roads to cope with the number of customers that it attracts". He said this "has had a significant impact on the amenity of nearby residents, it harms the conservation area and the Metropolitan Open Land".

Resident Graham Ball said his family were affected by "noise, antisocial behaviour and traffic" from the site. He said the conditions were designed "to naturally contain footfall and vehicle usage in an area that has an infrastructure totally unable to cope safely with the scale of the business that has been allowed to develop".

Green councillor Andrée Frieze said she wanted to support the business to "keep thriving" due to the opportunities and prestige it brought to the area. But she said: "A business that is literally built upon the extremely special nature of the Metropolitan Open Land that it is based in, and by doing so is actively in breach of the planning system, cannot claim to be as truly environmentally conscious or entirely ethical as it would like to be."

The report said evidence provided in a separate application showed a minor extension to the restaurant's permitted operating hours to 5pm on Tuesdays to Sundays had been carried out continuously for more than 10 years, meaning this was immune to enforcement action.

Officers recommended the council take enforcement action against some elements of the breach to require partial compliance with the conditions. This includes allowing a minor extension to the restaurant's operating hours to 10am to 5pm on Tuesdays to Sundays, and increasing its area to the rear of the site and part of the central greenhouse.

The committee unanimously agreed with officers' recommendations at the meeting. The compliance period is two months from the date the notice becomes effective.