The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas on Bank Street in Keswick has been denied permission by the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) to allow its external seating area to remain open to the public until 11pm.
The Wetherspoons pub, a Grade II Listed former police station and magistrates court near the centre of Keswick, had initially been granted permission to open its beer garden until 6pm.
An application to extend this until 8pm was granted in 2022 on appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, despite being initially refused by the LDNPA on the basis of the impact on local residents.
The current, refused application attracted five letters of objection from nearby residents on the basis of noise, as well as from Keswick Town Council.
The town council letter states: “As an open-air beer garden, it will inevitably have a greater impact than enclosed facilities which we believe will have an unacceptable impact on nearby residents trying to get to sleep.”
One letter of objection said: “The existing beer garden is already noisy and antisocial behaviour emanating from the beer garden is already a problem, and this would only get worse if the extension was granted.
Another commented: “The shouting, singing and other antisocial behaviour already committed from time to time by customers outside on the street would only be exacerbated and more frequent.”
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The LDNPA decision report explaining the refusal said: “The previous appeal applied itself to a relatively modest amendment to the opening hours and only into an early evening context (8pm).
“The proposed extension in opening hours now proposed, by contrast, extends much further into the evening at a time when adult and child occupants of nearby residential properties would expect quiet, night-time levels of noise.”
It concludes: “The representations received from neighbours indicate that the current activity from the outdoor seating area is already harmful to their amenity resulting in disruption and disturbance.
“In my assessment I have concluded that the proposed extension to the opening hours would be exacerbate these impacts and would be unacceptably harmful to amenity.”
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