News

City centre residents are urging councillors to call time on a pubs bid to boost the number of late-night revellers it can hold.

Phil Andrews,owner of The Porter pub in Miles's Buildings, is seeking a new public entertainment licence to keep both floors of the nightspot open until midnight from Monday to Saturday;

But residents fear the move will result in up to 360  noisy revellers spilling out onto George St at closing time.  The current licence only entitles Mr Andrews to keep the pub's basement open until midnight .  The ground floor shuts an hour beforehand. The revised licence would allow th epub to hold 160 extra drinkers between 11pm and midnight each evening.

Mr Andrews has defended his application to Bath and North East Somerset Council claiming that the new licence would not cause any further problems. But several written objections to his application have submitted by residents and a counciller

Clir Sarah Webb (Con Abbey) said an extended licence would mean more noise for local residents.

Mr Andrews who is also the owner of the nearby Moles nightclub said he wanted to boost late night capacity at the pub to satisfy demand.  'Customers would like it, we would like it,' he said. 'We don't mean to cause any extra problems.  'There might be a few more people, but I don't think it will cause any problems.  'The town centre is busy, but that's just a feature of town centres.'

Extract from Bath Chronicle article published Friday July 10th