A popular village eatery and events venue has been granted a new premises licence enabling them to sell alcohol and play recorded music indoors.
Earlier today the Licensing Act Sub-Committee approved The Yard's application to play recorded music indoors from 7pm to 11pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and from 12noon to 10pm on Sundays and to sell and supply alcohol (for consumption both on and off the premises) from 8.30am in the shop and from 12noon until 11pm in the cafe Monday to Saturday and 10am to 9pm on Sundays.
Anthony Lyons spoke on behalf of the Pickering Family who run The Yard, and announced at the beginning of the meeting that they had withdrawn the application for a live music licence, deciding instead to rely on the Live Music Act which means businesses do not need a special licence to stage a live music performance provided it finishes by 11pm and the audience is no more than 200 people.
Cheshire East Council received 11 written objections from local residents on the grounds of noise disturbance, one of which was subsequently withdrawn.
Claire Knowles spoke at the meeting on behalf of herself and other residents who objected. She said "This is a quiet residential area and it is totally inappropriate to open up a licensed premises. Granting The Yard a premises licence would not fulfil a local need as other premises in the commercial district of the village already cater for alcohol and music. The Yard has been open for over a year and during the past six months they have been increasingly operating as a music and party venue. During this time The Yard has shown either a lack of competence in management, or no respect for local laws often breaching the 11pm curfew. Loud music, live bands, artists and noisy patrons regularly create a disturbance way in to the small hours. One example of this is recorded music playing until 2am on New Year's Eve, followed by revellers being loud whilst leaving the area."
Claire added "The Yard fronts itself primarily as a deli shop serving customers during the working day. By granting these licenses, the entire ethos of the business changes from that of a healthy food deli/juice bar to a trendy cafe/bar.
"Change of use from a shop you a licensed premises will not be exclusive to the owner or business but to the premises. Should The Yard fail as a business the change of use will be in place for any future owners. This is an unacceptable risk that alone should be grounds for rejection of the application."
Cllr Frank Keegan also spoke on behalf of the residents who had objected. He said "We have a night time economy on London Road and I think licensed premises should be restricted to that and not moved into a residential area, and I don't think there are enough conditions that can be put on to justify it."
Anthony Lyons said "What this application is not about, it is not going to be a nightclub, it is not going to be a bar. It will continue as a multi-faceted, cultural space that sells nice local food with a mixed use of the rear room from cafe/restaurant to open mic, plays, theatrical events. It's not a bar in the sense you have on London Road. It is more of the same but instead of our regulars bringing their own bottles we sell alcohol to those people."
He added "Until we made this application at no point were we aware of the fact that there were resident's concerns. We didn't receive a single complaint but it is apparent that the residents have got an issue. We're very very sorry if that's the case, and we genuinely are, but you can't fix something if you don't know about it."
He added "We're not going for anything beyond the hours which planning already specifies (11pm) so we are not going to be trading into the early hours.
"It is correct that in the past they have had an events, possibly six in the past twelve months or so and one event they erected a cube (bar) in the yard. That was a charity event and the lesson learnt from that is we don't do that sort of thing. They won't be putting on any events that involve drums. So they are sensitive to residents to the area. They have also realised, the premises need to be sound proofed, which they will get on with immediately if this applications goes forward."
Stewart Pickering commented "We are interested in being very neighbourly. We have no desire or reason to cause any disturbance in the area."
He added "We will encourage taxis to pick up from the South Street car park, we don't want taxis outside The Yard with their engines running. Also there is a lot of people traffic coming from London Road and I'd hate us to be tarnished by the fact other people are walking down the backstreets, its not an absolutely quiet residential area."
Jeannie Pickering added "The space we have got is for cultural events, it's for art events. It is not for people to come and get drunk. There are activities going on which require people's engagement, for them to be involved with and to listen. Our audience come because they like to hear the talent.
"The alcohol is support the wonderful food we have, have a nice glass of wine and appreciate the arts and that's what we're about. We're not about club nights and huge parties, alright New Years Eve was a celebration but that was a one off."
The licence was granted with a number of conditions imposed, these conditions were proposed by the Environmental Health Officer and agreed by the applicants. These include that the premises closes at 11pm, external noise is monitored regularly with a written record kept in a log book of all monitoring and remedial action taken, all external windows and doors shall be closed whilst entertainment is taking place and the outside car park or yard is not used for any entertainment.
Additionally there shall not be any outside speakers, the licence holder or Designated Premises Supervisor will ensure the premises are vacated quietly within thirty minutes of the premises closing, notices will be located at the exits requesting customers to leave quietly and no bottles shall we disposed off between the hours of 9pm and 9am.
The subcommittee is also added that the smoking area should be moved to the rear of the building and to be designed to the satisfaction of the Environmental Health Department, a scheme of sound insulation shall be submitted to the authority for approval and implemented to the satisfaction of the Environmental Health Department before any recorded music is played in accordance with this licence and no alcohol in open containers or glasses can be drunk outside on the premises after 9pm.
Cllr Paul Whiteley, Chairman of the Licensing Act Sub-Committee, concluded by saying "The applicant has expressed the willingness for people to have his telephone number and his email address. We feel that if the communication between the applicant and local residents can be continued then it gives all parties a quick solution to any nuisances that might occur, or be perceived to occur, and we think that this opportunity should be followed up."
Speaking after the meeting Stewart Pickering said "We are looking forward to offering a selection of special wines, organic and biodynamic, and locally brewed beers which are sure to compliment The Yard's ethos.
