Battle Bar Secures Extended Hours

A Battle bar’s bid to extend its opening hours has been partially approved by Rother councillors.

At a hearing held on Wednesday (May 14), a Rother District Council licensing panel considered an application to vary a premises licence associated with The Chapel Bar in Battle High Street.

The bar had been seeking permission to extend the hours at which it can sell alcohol, a proposal which had seen objections raised by neighbours and the council’s own environmental health team.

Objectors, who had included ward councillor Kathryn Field, raised concerns around antisocial behaviour and noise.

They argued the extended hours would exacerbate existing issues, they said were already present in the area.

Several objectors had raised specific concerns about drinkers ‘urinating, defecating and vomiting’ in the nearby area

But Nick Semper, an agent representing licence holder Anna Stewart, argued there was not sufficient evidence to support these concerns.

Mr Semper said:

“This hearing is for you to decide solely upon whether this variation, confined to the expansion of the modest extension of hours and the functionality to match those of their near competitors, will undermine or promote the licensing objectives.

“The public representors against this application seem to wish to use it as a review of the current licence for alleged breaches in the past. Put starkly, this isn’t a review and therefore they can’t call for it to be reviewed.

“In my submission, were there to be empirical evidence of systemic problems emanating from this operation then parliament has already provided the correct mechanism to deal with all or any of them.”

He added:

“There is no recorded evidence or history or official reports or records of problems emanating from licensable activities at these premises — save the noise which has been addressed — and the lead responsible authorities, which champion and lead on their own particular licensing objectives, have raised no objection to it.”

Mr Semper also said Mrs Stewart was “as disgusted and disappointed” as objectors by the reports of fouling in the area, but strongly denied any connection to her business, which he noted had “more than adequate toilet and sanitary provision”.

No public objectors attended the hearing to put forward their views.

However, an objection had also been raised by Daniel Bontoft, a community protection officer with the council’s environmental health team.

Mr Bontoft told councillors how the business had been issued with an abatement notice in December following a series of noise complaints. But Mr Bontoft also said the business had co-operated with the council to address the issue and that there had been no further noise complaints since January of this year.

Mr Semper for his part described the noise complaints as a “historic” issue, rather than an ongoing problem.

He said:

“We do not deny that there was an issue at the end of last year. Mr Bontoft has addressed that in his representation and there have been no further issues since then.

“We have commissioned [a] noise report from a qualified acoustician and have implemented those recommendations.”

The business had first secured its licence in July last year, gaining permission to serve alcohol from 11am to 10.30pm seven days a week. It had initially been seeking longer serving hours, but amended its request in response to objections from neighbours at the time.

As a result of the change in the requested hours two out of three objections made in response to the previous application were dropped. In making this change, however, the business had stated an intention to seek a variation after six months of operation.

The application considered by the committee followed through on this intention.

It specifically sought permission for the bar to serve alcohol: from 11am to 11pm Monday to Thursday; from 11am to 12.30am on Fridays; from 9am to 12.30am on Saturdays; and from 9am to 11pm on Sundays.

The business says these hours would allow the business to have hours more similar to those of The Bull, another bar on the opposite side of the road.

After considering the application, councillors opted to extend the bar’s current trading hours, but held back from granting the full request for Friday and Saturday nights.

As a result, the bar will now be able to serve alcohol: from 11am to 11pm Monday to Thursday; from 11am to 12am on Fridays; from 9am to 12am on Saturdays; and from 9am to 11pm on Sundays.

The bar had also been seeking permission to extend its ‘licensable area’.

This change would allow the business to create a seating area in front of its main entrance, where customers could eat and drink outside. The business had offered a condition for the tables from this area to be removed by 11pm each day to “discourage and police outside drinking”.

Councillors agreed to this extension, but added a condition requiring outside drinking to cease at 10pm.