A plan to extend the opening hours of an Aberystwyth pub until the early hours of the morning seven days a week was rejected by officers, a council committee has heard, after dozens of objections were lodged.
Members of the Ceredigion County Council Licensing Committee heard at a meeting on 21 March that an application for extended hours at The Academy on Great Darkgate Street was review by licensing officers in October last year.
The pub wanted to extend its opening hours of 3am Sunday to Thursday and 4am Friday and Saturday and add the ability to show films, have plays performed and live music and dance, but a 28 day consultation period on the application saw more than 40 representations made by local residents over the plan.
The report outlines concerns raised by licensing officers over “numerous” complaints received about noise levels from the venue within its current opening hours until 11pm seven days a week.
Officers also raised concerns that some advertisements for the pub on Facebook already showed 4am as the closing time, despite the venue not holding the appropriate licence.
A report put before committee members said the licensing panel “unanimously agreed that the granting of this license would not promote the prevention of public nuisance” and “agreed with the representations made by Environmental Health (Public Protection Officer) that the extension to the licence, if granted, could contribute to public nuisance due to the fact that the noise levels of the music being played from the premises has created a nuisance on numerous occasions.”
“The Panel was concerned that the applicant had appeared to breach the current licence also by advertising on Facebook that the premises was open until 4am on a date that he did not have a Temporary Events Notice for,” the report added.
“The Panel advised that they would need to see a professional and robust noise management plan in place before they would be able to grant a licence which extends the current hours, and the applicant could apply again in future once the noise issues had been addressed.”