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Gastro-pub's expansion
is put on ice
A PUB’S expansion plan has been put on ice after licensing
chiefs refused it permission to serve more customers.
Managers at the Freemason’s Arms in Downshire Hill, Hampstead,
are squaring up to their neighbours on both planning and licensing
grounds. They want to build an extension to the current gastro-pub
in a bid to attract more diners and drinkers.
But, the pub needs council permission to serve extra people
and, at a Town Hall meeting on Friday afternoon, their application
for a new covering licence was turned down.
A panel of three councillors voted 2-1 against giving the pub
permission to expand. A separate planning application is currently
being processed at the Town Hall as the bar waits to see whether
it can make structural changes to the building and alterations
to the beer garden.
Neighbours are objecting to both the planning application and
the licence bid. Many of them argue that an increase in numbers
would lead to extra disturbance late at night.
At Friday’s meeting, Tony Hillier, the Chairman of the
Heath and Hampstead Society who lives in Downshire Hill, said:
“People have a right to the quiet enjoyment of their homes.”
Environment chief Councillor John Thane voted in favour of the
pub’s expansion – warning that the pub was so old
and well known that residents knew it was there when they moved
into the street.
But he was outflanked in a vote by Labour councillor Pat Callaghan
and committee chairman Councillor Keith Moffitt, the leader
of the Liberal Democrats.
A spokesman for Mitchell and Butler’s, the brewery in control
of the Freemason’s, said: “We are obviously disappointed
with the decision reached today. We need to go away and think
about what has been said and see what we will do next.” |
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