Disagreement to a Proposal

I received your letter, dated 24 June, in which you informed me that the Swan public house has made a formal written request to the council to extend their opening hours to 2am on Wednesday and Thursday, instead of the 11pm licence they hold at present.

I regret that I have to strongly object to these proposals on the grounds of the excessive noise and disturbance that will result if the proposed extension to the opening hours is given the council’s seal of approval. To grant this extension would also contravene your rules and regulations with regard to excessive noise and disturbance in a residential area as stated on page 4, section 4 on your website within the ‘licensed entertainment and licensed premises’ section.

As you are aware, the Swan was granted extended opening hours at weekends last year as a result of the new Government legislation at that time with regard to licensing hours.

You’ll have also, no doubt, received many letters of complaint from nearby residents since the extended hours came into force with objections about the excessive levels of noise outside the nearby houses on Platt Avenue, where I live too incidentally, and the increase in anti-social behaviour with bins being emptied out onto people’s gardens by loutish behaviour and the problems we have faced with pub go-ers deciding that our gardens are a suitable place to dump their fish and chips wrappings and other assorted items of waste, not to mention the verbal abuse some of us have faced when we have confronted the people responsible directly.

Time and again we have complained to both the landlord of the Swan and to the council but nothing has ever been done about this problem and it continues unabated each week. Not only is this totally unacceptable, it has turned, what was once a quiet residential avenue, into a place where residents fear for their safety.

Therefore, by extending the hours to also incorporate Wednesdays and Thursdays in addition to Fridays and Saturdays is a proposal which is completely inappropriate and unacceptable and I expect that you will have received many similar letters from other nearby residents who also wish to voice their concern about this issue.

I trust that no decision will be taken on this matter until all the interested parties’ viewpoints have been considered and I would urge you to consider holding a meeting locally so that all points of view can be aired.

Please make a written note of my objections to these proposals and record them on file and please keep me informed as to any developments regarding the matter.

Yours sincerely,

Trevor Bailey