Residents and police unite in opposition to longer bar hours

The application to allow the Roxy Venue – a former bingo and social club – to open an extra half hour comes just weeks after police launched an investigation into a murder outside its doors.

Richard Reynolds, a 42-year-old former paratrooper from Halifax, died of his injuries following an assault outside the Sowerby Bridge sports bar-cum-nightclub. He died in hospital 12 days later on May 25. A man has been charged following the death .

Several objectors referred to the incident in their submissions. One resident said: “Last night, May 13, a man nearly died from head injuries in a fight outside the Roxy. Clearly we have a big enough problem already and need our licensing committee to protect the interests of innocent townsfolk in refusing this application.”

Another complained that the “wrong type of person” was attracted to the venue. He called for its management, security and opening hours to be reviewed, adding “this is certainly not the right time to extend them.”.

And yet another resident added: “It is reported that patrons are coming in from a wide area – not just Sowerby Bridge – expressly to drink late at the Roxy.

“I have witnessed this directly, coming off the train at 9.40pm on a Saturday night and being jostled by a group of four scruffy, clearly-already-drunk 20-somethings chanting: ‘We’re going drinking at the Roxy!’

“With the last application for variation there was a police objection on account that any later opening would change the venue from a sports bar/restaurant to a nightclub and this was not felt appropriate for Sowerby Bridge. I cannot see that anything has changed subsequently.”

West Yorkshire Police also oppose the extra half hour until 2.30am between Thursdays and Sundays and an additional hour and a half for all Bank Holiday Mondays and an additional hour when the clocks go forward in March.

In their objection letter, an officer says: “This is the second application in four months to be submitted by the applicant to increase the opening hours.

“The last application was not granted by the Licensing Committee in March this year, one of the reasons being on the grounds of the likelihood of an increase in crime and disorder should the hours be extended. I cannot see how anything could have changed in this time.

“It is my opinion that should this half-hour extension be granted then we will see a similar application in another couple of months for another half-hour extension and so on until the premises is opening until 3.30am as was originally applied for.”

Calderdale Council is also against longer opening hours at Wharf Street. A report to be considered by the licensing sub committee on Thursday to decide says: “The existing planning permission gives the maximum acceptable opening hours for the business, without it causing undue harm to nearby residents. It is considered that although the proposal is not to extend the hours every day, the hours applied for will result in residents suffering harm from the extended opening hours in the early morning.”

The council also has concerns over problems with noise. It says it “feels that with licensed hours as late as 1.30am there is cause for concern about the activities carried on at the premises and certainly would not wish to see the licensed times to be extended due to the adverse effects on occupiers of adjacent residential properties.”

Roxy owner Lee Nuttall denied noise or disturbance problems, saying of the assault: “It was nothing to do with us.”

Roxy’s opened as a bar in October last year and has been very popular. Mr Nuttall said: “We are bringing something into Sowerby Bridge. A lot of the licensed premises round here open until 2.30am and even later but it is up to the council what they decide to do at the end of the day.”