Licensing Victory for pub despite fears of disorder
ASUMMER beer garden has won the right to serve booze and food outdoors seven days a week throughout the year despite neighbours’ complaints about noise.
Residents say their sleep and peace has been disturbed by customers at Crofters Garden in Montpelier since councillors approved a three-month licence in May.
They told Bristol City Council licensing sub-committee on that antisocial behaviour had increased as “rowdy elements from Stokes Croft and Turbo Island” started drinking at the premises, a claim owner Jon Dalton angrily denied as “lies”.
Members approved his application to vary the licence to allow food and drink outside from 10am to 9.30pm every day after hearing general noise would be expected in a city.
At the previous hearing in May, a dozen neighbours, Montpelier Conservation Group and the council’s noise pollution team objected, with one resident saying they were building a drawbridge to stop street drinkers getting past his gate and urinating in his garden.
That meeting heard the site, on the corner of Ashley Road and Picton Street, had been plagued with squatters and that a former tenant had infuriated householders with outdoor barbecues from shelters built without planning permission.
But councillors granted a licence from July 1 to September 30 for the sale of alcohol until 9.30pm on Thursdays and 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
However, the sub-committee was told last week that government legislation passed subsequently extended the use of outdoor space for longer than allowed under the premises’ existing licence, so it had traded throughout the week.
Jeffrey Butterfield, whose home overlooks the site, said: “I’m concerned the amount of noise coming from this German beer garden is ensuring I have to shut my doors and windows in the evenings. The applicant wants to make this all about booze, not food.
“The antisocial behaviour since the beer garden opened went up considerably as rowdy elements from Stokes Croft and Turbo Island started to patronise it.
“It appears the licensing authority is assisting the transfer of the use of the site from a restaurant to a pub.”
Neighbour Dr Kate Seddon said: “I was concerned there were considerable differences between what was agreed in May and what actually happened in the running of the business.
“They are serving pizzas but the vast majority of people are not there to eat pizza, it’s primarily where they go to drink alcohol.
“There has been an increase in noise pollution so it is difficult to sleep at night and my husband has struggled to work because of the noise,” Dr Seddon said.
Abigail Holman, of the council’s regulatory services, said she had made a representation because of residents’ concerns.
Mr Dalton said: “We run a very simple business here.
“It’s not a German beer garden. We certainly don’t have people coming up from Turbo Island which is full of vagrants sitting around in the afternoon drinking.
“To make up lies like that about our customers is outrageous.”
His solicitor Piers Warne said there were significantly fewer objections than for both the summer garden in May and the original premises licence three years ago.
“This application is about the continued survival and hopefully flourishing of a business which this summer has proven to be popular in difficult times,” he said.
Announcing the panel’s decision to approve the application, chairman Cllr Barry Clark said: “Hopefully with the 9.30pm limits in the garden, noise will be kept to a minimum.”