Kings Tavern: licence suspended but will things improve?

Last night I spoke on behalf of local residents who have had to put up with months of disturbance caused by the Kings Tavern on Kings Road.

As I reported in March a review of the licence held by the Kings Tavern was triggered by the environmental protection section of the Council, following months of noise complaints by local residents living nearby.

I was extremely shocked by what I heard at the licensing committee hearing.

Over the past few months, in addition to complaints from residents about noise and anti-social behaviour, the management of the Kings Tavern failed a test purchasing visit by RBC Trading Standards and Thames Valley Police and were found selling alcohol to underage people.

The management have also been responsible for holding a late night party earlier this year that got so out of hand it resulted in additional Police officers having to be brought in from outside the Borough to tackle public order offences.

These serious lapses are wholly unacceptable in what is largely a residential area with large numbers of families, elderly people and families living nearby. The reports I received from residents were distressing and caused at least one couple to move out of the area.

This pub has been a problem venue for many months. Last summer I campaigned to support residents who did not want to see its licence extended. The application was withdrawn following the scale of local objection.

What I find particularly unsatisfactory about the way events unfolded at the Kings Tavern is that the management were repeatedly warned by both the Council and the Police to get control of the venue, tackle problems or face a licence review.

Despite these warnings the problems continued and we continued to receive complaints from increasingly exasperated local residents.

As a result of last night's licensing hearing the premise licence held by the DPS at the Kings Tavern has been suspended for 28 days to allow them to put in place new regulations and policies. A number of new conditions have also been attached designed to reduce noise breakout and other problems.

The new conditions are welcome, however, I personally would have liked to have seen either the Council or the pub company consider enforcing a change of management at this venue if possible.

I do not see why local residents should have to put up with further nuisance.

I hope that this decision will be a wake-up call to the management of the Kings Tavern.

If not, I will support residents in pressing for a revocation of the licence. For that to happen we will need evidence of nuisance caused.

I would urge any residents disturbed by noise or other problems relating to this venue in the future to report it to the authorities so that action can be taken :

• 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.

UPDATE:

Today's Evening Post has the story.

Comments

[Will Hasted]

As a frequent visitor and customer of the Kings Tavern I would just like to point out a few things in it's defence:

Firstly, the place is obviously a struggling business and is usually from my experience either virtually or completely empty, which leads me to conclude that any complaints about noise must be from isolated incidents.
Late night functions which get out of hand like the one mentioned above are obviously unacceptable, but caused, I believe, by the need to get some people in to the pub so the business can survive rather than with any intent of distressing the neighbours.
I was also present in the pub when they were caught selling alcohol to a minor and this in my opinion was somewhat of a "sting", as from what I understand the person who actually asked and paid for the alcoholic drink in question was the officer themselves and was quite clearly above the legal drinking age. I am confident that if it was the minor who had requested the drink they would have been either asked for ID or not served outright.
Also, if it is clearly such a problem to have a licensed establishment in such a residential area, then surely some of the blame must lie with whoever signed the planning application for the pub in the first place? I wouldn't move next door to a pub if I was concerned about noise levels.
Finally, I once attended a live music event in the Kings Tavern, and I think it is worth saying that everyone was well behaved, the noise was well contained inside the building, and the event came to a close before 11pm. Events like this are great for the arts and culture of the town/area, and attract respectful, well behaved people who are far more concerned with witnessing and doing something creative and productive than in being drunk and rowdy. It would be great if events like this were allowed to continue without cause for further complaint, because in my opinion they are good for the culture of Reading, not to mention the reputation and success of the pub itself. Finally I would like to point out that in my opinion the current supervisor and staff of the pub are genuinely friendly and lovely people and are not in anyway guilty of purposely attempting to alienate the residents or create a bad atmosphere, only of making a few misinformed choices.

Thankyou,

Will Hasted
Cumberland Road

[jacob worthing]

what a load of complete rubbish Mr Hasted.
The current supervisor hasn't got a clue and complete rubbish on the test purchase because you cannot get done for serving underage drinkers if you didn't serve them!!!!!!

Thank you
Mr Jacob worthing

[mark harrison]

hullo.

i think that will has made some very valid points.

i have also spent some time at the tavern, and have got to know the staff well. their hearts are in the right place, and i hope that this setback will make a big difference to how the pub is run.

it is nice to find a place in reading as friendly and open minded as the kings tavern. perhaps if few more of the local residents frequented the pub, then the management would be in a better position to turn away the more unsavoury elements without having to worry about how they are going to make ends meet.

i would also like to add that there is an excellent african food menu on offer which i highly recommend. try it out some time, you might be surprised.

kindest regards,

mark william harrison.