79 London Road withdraws its licence application

Good news at least in part today as we hear that the highly-controversial licence extension application for 79 London Road has been withdrawn. It seems that applicant saw the scale of objections and did not wish to proceed with the application. As a result, next week's hearing has been cancelled.

I'm hoping this will put a stop to the serious disturbance caused to local residents by late night events at this venue. The applicant has exhausted it's Temporary Event Notices for this calendar year and cannot apply for more until January 2009. This means that recorded music cannot be played at this venue beyond 11pm on Friday and Saturday nights, and 8pm on Sunday evenings.

However, the concerns around break-out noise from this venue and lack of sound insulation remain.

I have written to Environmental Protection officers to enquire about the status of their investigations into noise complaints in this venue. Their objection to this application was very strongly worded: see below:

"The Reading Borough Council Licensing Policy Statement states that public houses located in and catering for residential areas wishing to open beyond 11pm will need to demonstrate clearly that public nuisance will not result from later operation.  In this case I do not believe that the applicant has demonstrated this to be the case.

The areas of concern are

 The Hours of operation proposed
 Noise from people leaving the venue throughout the night
 The structure is not adequately insulated to stop break out noise
 Noise from the outdoor area

I am concerned that due to the close proximity of the premise to residential properties, the measures outlined in section P (d) of the application are not sufficient to prevent a public nuisance.

Since the premise licence was issued we have received a number of complaints from nearby residents with reference to noise break out and shouting from the activities at the club. An investigation into this matter is being undertaken by the Environmental Protection team and until a resolution is found it would not be appropriate to permit an extension to the operating hours of the club. Evidence and visits by staff suggest that a public nuisance is being caused.

I am concerned that in order to play music at a volume that would be satisfactory to patrons, works will be required to the structure of the premises to ensure that the noise is contained. Until the applicant has instructed an acoustic consultant to carry out a survey and submit a report detailing the works that would be required to provide adequate sound insulation, and any other steps that would be required to prevent breakout noise (for example noise limiters controlling certain frequencies of sound) the extended hours should not be given.

Once implemented there should be a further survey to demonstrate that the works have been completed to a satisfactory standard and these have been agreed with the Environmental Protection Team.

Until these works have been completed I would recommend that the premises is not granted an extension to the licence."

Going forward, I am urging residents to report any future disturbance from this venue to local agencies via the following three phone numbers:

Reading Borough Council Licensing section 0118 939 0678
Reading Borough Council Environmental Health (Noise) team: 0118 939 0937 (daytimes) 0118 939 0900 out of hours.
Police: 0845 8 505 505 (24hr asb hotline) or 999.

If the serious issues highlighted by this application continue, I can forsee a scenario where it is quite possible that residents will be minded to push for a total review of the premises licence currently held by this venue. If this happens, residents will need to provide clear evidence of licence breaches, hence the need to report issues.