Yorkshire village pub allowed to open from 8am until 2am on weekends despite objections
The board granted an application to vary the licence of the Green Dragon in Thurgoland during a meeting today (October 22).
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Hide AdThe new opening times are Monday to Wednesday from 8am to midnight, Thursday from 8am to 12.30am, Friday and Saturday from 8am to 2am, and Sunday from 8am to midnight, with an extra hour added on the day British summertime begins.
On behalf of the applicants, Star Pubs and Bars Limited, George Domleo told the meeting that they aim to operate the pub as an asset to the community. He emphasised that the proposed change in opening hours would enable the business to diversify its offerings by providing breakfast and allowing customers to enjoy a longer stay.
The applicant also agreed to install a CCTV system, operate a Challenge 25 policy, and provide residents with a dedicated phone number and email address for the designated premises supervisor, to allow residents to make complaints directly at all times that the premises are open.
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Management also scrapped plans to extend the hours for live and recorded music to 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays. The hours will remain unchanged, allowing music until midnight.
Five objectors attended the meeting, and raised concerns around disruption to residents, and the impact of longer opening hours on the community in terms of crime, safety and noise.
Residents also raised concerns that previous tenants had not been able to make the business viable.
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Hide AdOne resident told the meeting that there had been 12 tenants in the pub since 2018, and added that those living in the vilage are ‘tired of it closing down and shutting’.
Martin Thorpe, who objected to the plans, told the meeting: “I don’t think any of us want to see the pub close.
“I think it’s an act of desperation to ask to open a pub 18 hours a day. I think it’s a ridiculous request. It’s a residential village with young families, elderly people, a very quiet village, and we don’t want to see anything that disrupts that.
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Hide Ad“It’s just not appropriate. Selling alcohol is a serious business. It can have catastrophic effects on a community…if it’s mismanaged.”
Another resident, Andrew Clayton, added: “I do actually want this pub to succeed… but I want it to be done in the right way, with good beers [and] good food.
“I just do not see the necessity to open until 2am. There doesn’t seem to be a big volume of people using the pub currently anyway. I don’t think this is what the residents want.
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Hide Ad“There’s never a police person in the village. If there is any trouble which invariably with youths, alcohol and let’s not have our heads in the sand, drugs and things like that, inevitably there is going to be fighting and noise. Who’s going to deal with that, there’s no police?”
“I just do not understand why you need to extend what you’ve currently got.”
Residents also expressed concerns about the pub evolving into a “quasi-nightclub.”
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Hide AdMr Domleo however, rejected this, and told the board that the pub is ‘not to be a nightclub’.
The board unanimously approved the application on the grounds that a minimum of two staff would be on duty at all times, subject to the conditions that the applicant had agreed previously with South Yorkshire Police.
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