A planning dispute over opening hours of a beer garden at Keswick’s Chief Justice of the Common Pleas has resulted in the Bank Street hostelry being allowed to use the outdoor area later into the evening.
JD Wetherspoon PLC appealed after the Lake District National Park Authority refused permission to extend the hours of the external customer area beyond 8pm. The company had sought to use the terrace until 11pm but planning inspector David Smith has now ruled that it can open until 10pm.
The permission is subject to conditions, including a ban on amplified music in the outdoor area and adherence to a management plan. The decision is the latest in a planning saga stretching back several years.
An earlier appeal for a larger beer garden was dismissed in 2019. Planning permission for the current external area was granted in 2021, initially with a 6pm closing time, before a further appeal in 2022 extended that to 8pm.
The planning inspector said that when he visited before 8pm, the external area was in use for eating and drinking.
“From across Bank Street, the hum and buzz of conversation and socialising was largely drowned out when vehicles went by,” he said. “After 8pm the terrace was closed but there was noise emanating from a live music venue, those waiting outside it and from others walking along Bank Street and along the passage between the public house and the appeal site to the public car park. It was still a busy area.”
He said that this area of the town is already “fairly lively” in the evenings and adds that the public house stays open until midnight on most days and until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.
“Representations refer to intoxicated patrons leaving the premises with elevated noise levels all year round, especially during warmer weather and at peak visitor periods,” he said. “The concern is that shouting, singing and other anti-social behaviour already committed by customers outside on the street would be exacerbated, especially as the noise is said to echo along Bank Street.”
He added: “The appellant recognises that the use of outside areas by their customers gives rise to a potential risk that noise and disturbance would be caused to those who live in the vicinity of the premises. To that end, a management plan has been provided.”
Mr Smith said that while the measures the management plan contains would not prevent unwanted behaviours, it does provide some assurance that the use of the appeal site would be monitored. He also points out that Cumbria Constabulary have raised no objections.
“This is a town centre location. Even if the appeal were dismissed, there would still be late night activity in the vicinity,” he said. “The use of the outside seating area after 8pm hours would be unlikely to be all year round and would not add significantly to the existing episodes of disturbance.”
