A TOWN centre cafe bar has been given the go-ahead to use its patio area later at night by just one vote at a council meeting.
A number of councillors raised concerns at the application to extend the opening hours of the bar’s “beer garden” that opened last year next door to the home of a family with four children.
Councillors had been advised to approve lifting the restriction that limited use of the back garden of the Dugout cafe bar until just 5pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and put in place a new condition allowing use of the area until 9pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The bar, on Lion Street, Abergavenny, is already allowed to open with live music indoors and serve alcohol, until 11pm every night of the week with permission to use the garden until 9pm on Sundays and Thursdays and 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
When the application was put to the vote Monmouthshire County Council’s planning committee was split with seven members in favour of approval and seven voting to refuse the application and keep the existing restrictions. Approval was then granted on the casting vote of committee chairman, Councillor Phil Murphy.
Cllr Phil Murphy (Pic: MCC)
The application had prompted 140 comments to the council including 49 objections and next door neighbour Karen Hobley, who appeared before the committee, said she had moved into the house, where she’d given birth to two of her children, 17 years ago when its neighbours were a children’s nursery and an estate agents.
Mrs Hobley said the applicants had stated they intended opening a cafe but said it was now a “pub” and with a garden that hosts up to 90 people.
She said: “Has there previously been a beer garden set up next to a family home before?”
She said she was concerned at people smoking and drinking on the street outside and “language that is totally inappropriate for our children” and said one of their bedrooms overlooks the garden and their child refuses to open their blinds with their mental health affected.
“We are all suffering as a family and it’s heartbreaking as a mother that I can’t protect my children,” said Mrs Hobley.
Abergavenny Grofield ward councillor Laura Wright said the retrospective application, for the patio and fencing approved in May this year had sought to strike a balance between what the business required and protecting the amenity of local residents. She said the town council had objected to the application as it supported maintaining that balance.
The Labour member said she hadn’t come “to criticise a valued local business” but wanted the committee to think about the impact on residents whose homes are directly impacted. She also said she couldn’t see any reason why the condition, based on the council’s policy to protect residential amenity, should be changed.
Cllr Laura Wright (Pic: MCC)
Council planning officer Phil Thomas said the 5pm condition wasn’t a “magic bullet” and after doing some “more digging”, and as there was no objection from environmental health, officers felt the time limit could be amended.
Applicant and Dugout co-owner Eoin Duggan said it wasn’t the bar’s intention to open during all of the requested hours but they wanted the “flexibility” to do so and to be in line with five nearby evening venues he listed.
He said the bar, which he described as supporting a number of community events and groups, had previously hosted a business networking group in the garden but had to stop as it had done so outside of its permitted hours.
“We have no intention of opening until 9pm, seven nights a week. There’s no trade in that for us. It’s purely to be flexible,” said Mr Duggan.
Committee member, Conservative councillor for Mitchell Troy and Trellech, Jayne McKenna said it didn’t appear as if the neighbours “have any respite” from the next door cafe bar and said: “Seven days a week, until nine or 10pm does seem excessive to me.”
Cllr Jayne Mckenna
A condition will prevent live or recorded music being played in the garden after 8pm and Mr Thomas said the council expects residents will report any breaches of the conditions which would be investigated by the planning department and potentially environmental health.
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