Bar wins fight for right to stage wedding after police lose argument

Windmill Tavern, more commonly known as Jack’s Bar, in Park Square, Northowram, Halifax, applied for the licence to Calderdale Council permitting the holding of the nuptial celebrations from 8pm on Saturday, May 26 to 12.30am the next day.

West Yorkshire Police had opposed the application, saying the last time a licence had been applied for, on March 24, the event “resulted in the police being called to a disturbance in the street.

“A local resident had a large ground-floor window smashed and I have received several other reports from residents to say they experienced noise and disturbance from the premises.

“One resident found her car bonnet covered in blood which she believes to have resulted from an incident at the premises on the same night.”

The police added that “the owners of the premises are not working with the responsible authorities in order to address issues at the premises”.

But at a meeting of the licensing sub committee at Halifax town hall yesterday the bar’s owners, the Hillas family, successfully argued that they should be permitted to hold the event for a neighbour’s wedding.

Coun Bryan Smith (Lab, Ovenden) said afterwards: “It was accepted that they could have a temporary event notice.

“They had already had nine temporary notices in the recent past and there had only been one incident where the police were called and the owners gave us a number of assurances regarding CCTV etc and we decided that we would give them another chance.”

Landlady Linzi Hillas said afterwards: “I am pleased. It is the first time we will have staged a wedding here.”

Last year the Yorkshire Post reported how plans by the bar to extend its opening times into the early hours on a weekend failed after residents said their lives would be made “unbearable”.

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