A new shisha bar could open close to the University of Leeds

If given the go-ahead, the shisha bar would open on Westfield Road in Woodhouse

The owners of the UK Palase Ltd cafe/restaurant on Westfield Road, close to the University of Leeds, have applied to Leeds City Council to operate as a shisha bar.

Leeds businessman dodged tax duty on imported shisha tobaccoThe upper ground floor would be designated as a shisha lounge.

The business would retain its current opening hours, which are 8am-11pm from Monday-Friday, 9am-11pm on Saturdays and 11am-11pm on Sundays.

The proposal is awaiting approval from Leeds City Council planners.

Legally, business owners do not require a licence to sell shisha. An MP from Birmingham is currently campaigning for the government to introduce controls to limit the number of bars opening in residential areas. In a shisha lounge, customers tend to share a communal hookah pipe. Many bars now offer herbal shisha, which contains no tobacco and so is legal to smoke in public places.

Kadas on Crown Street was the first shisha lounge to open outside London in the late 1990s.

In July 2018, a group of men were filmed brawling with weapons outside a shisha lounge near Sheepscar Interchange in Leeds.

Between 2013 and 2015, Leeds City Council took enforcement action against six shisha bars found to be flouting anti-smoking laws. Successful prosecutions followed visits to Arabiya, Al Qasa, Phantom Lounge, Cabin 164, Rendezvous and Afterz.