Neighbours go head to head with Brighton whisky bar applicant at licensing hearing

Neighbours spoke out about plans to turn an off-licence into a whisky bar where people could sample drinks on the premises.

They said that were worried that licensing bosses would be setting “a dangerous precedent” if they approved the application.

Specialist whisky supplier Sebastian Woolf applied to turn the old Trafalgar Wines premises – in Trafalgar Street in Brighton – into somewhere his customers could try before they buy.

And he wants to call the North Laine premises – stocking individual casks from specific distilleries – Cut Your Wolf Loose.

Mr Woolf made his case to a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel at a “virtual” hearing today (Monday 18 May).

But the panel was told that the proposed whisky bar was in the council’s “cumulative impact zone” where the rules about new licences are stricter.

And just under a fortnight ago Mr Woolf was refused planning permission for a change of use. He was accused of trying to open a “pub by stealth”.

One neighbour, Peter Crowhurst, of Kensington Place, told the panel that to allow drinking in the shop would add to the noise and volume of people in the North Laine.

Mr Crowhurst, a former chair of the North Laine Community Association, said: “The area is saturated with licenced premises. It is a residential area.

“There are over 80 licensed premises, increasing by 300 per cent since 2005.

“Trafalgar Street has 15 licensed businesses, what other area has had to suffer this?

“People are leaving and then their houses become HMOs (houses in multiple occupation), party houses and ‘Airbnbs’. What used to be a mixed area has lost its soul.”

When Mr Woolf asked if it would be better to have a controlled drinking environment rather than an off-licence in the street, Mr Crowhurst said that a bar would be “of no benefit” to residents.

The North Laine Community Association’s licensing co-ordinator Roy Skam said that a venue dispensing “strong spirits” would lead to more alcohol being consumed in the “cumulative impact zone”.

He said: “If it were granted, I can envisage an avalanche of existing off-licences wanting to become bars. There are no exceptional reasons for this application.”