|
|
 |
| |
Camden Head pub garden and neighbouring flats in background |
Neighbours stub out pub’s late-night fags in garden
Smokers will be banished at 11pm as noise fears scupper plans
SMOKERS were at the centre of the Battle of the Beer Garden which erupted on Monday.
The Camden Head pub, in Angel, applied to extend the opening hours of its patio garden, allowing smokers to slip out for a cigarette while not leaving the pub’s grounds after the July 1 nationwide ban comes in.
Customers can drink and eat until 11pm in the garden at the Camden Walk pub, but bosses wanted it to remain open until midnight every night and 1am on Fridays and Saturdays from July 1.
There were howls of protest from residents of nearby Colinsdale House, who complained they were already suffering sleepless nights because of noise from the garden.
It was the first case of its kind to go before Town Hall licensing councillors as pubs prepare for the July 1 ban.
Counsel for Camden Head’s owners, the Spirit Group, argued it was easier to control smokers on the premises rather than have them puffing in the narrow passageway outside the pub’s front door.
But the licensing committee threw out the application because of the beer garden’s proximity to Colinsdale House, a block of residential flats. The entrance of the pub is not close to any homes.
Residents of Colinsdale House had presented a 27-signature petition against the plans. In a joint letter, they said: “We feel strongly that 10pm is late enough for the near-nightly noise and disturbance residents of this estate suffer.”
Nick Clarke, from the council’s noise team, said he was concerned about the proposal.
Lib Dem councillor George Allan said he could see “a number of practical difficulties” with plans to give smokers late-night garden access. Putting smokers in the beer garden simply placed them closer to residents, he warned.
Alun Alesbury, barrister for the Spirit Group, said: “The question is where will someone who has to have a cigarette go?” The pub took the view it was better to have an element of control on the premises, rather than have customers go into Camden Walk for a smoke.
Mr Alesbury said: “It is not any kind of underhand attempt to use the gardens as a traditional pub garden past 11 o’clock.
“We regard it as a perverse state of affairs that the one place a smoker can’t go after 11pm is the one place we have control over.”
Spirit Group’s area manager Jo Rook argued that the volume of smokers in the beer garden, which has nine benches, could be kept in check by door staff.
Following rejection of their application, the pub’s owners are to wait and see how other bars cope with the new legislation and may re-apply for later opening of the beer garden. |
 |
|
| |
| Your Comments: |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
