A Brighton pub will have to close earlier and take steps to limit noise after relations with neighbours became strained.
The changes are the result of new licence conditions being imposed on Le Village, formerly the Ranelagh, in High Street, Kemp Town, by Brighton and Hove City Council.
A council licensing panel reviewed the pub’s licence after complaints from neighbours, including people living next door in Darwell Court.
They complained about loud music and anti-social behaviour by customers.
A separate case is under way after the council served a noise abatement notice on the pub.
At the licensing panel hearing on Monday 30 November, councillors were told that people from nine separate properties had complained about increasing noise levels since the pub changed hands last year.
Neighbours were particularly concerned about noise during the working week.
They cited a boisterous Sunday night when a stripper performed at midnight.
St James’s Street resident Lucille Robinson spoke about customer noise outside the premises, saying: “What is acceptable up to 11.30 at night is not acceptable beyond that when it goes on to 3am.”
Residents and the pub’s co-owner Lee Wain, formerly Cockshott, spoke about personal abuse on social media after the breakdown of relations between the pub and the community.
The licensing panel sent a decision notice saying: “Overall, the panel considers that the evidence from the residents was compelling and relevant, especially that of the main spokesperson for the review.
“Some aspects of their testimonies were deeply unsettling, especially that surrounding campaigns against them on social media and the impact that had had on their lives in addition to the noise disturbance.
“The impression we gained was that they very much wanted to work with the pub to solve these issues rather than seek its demise and the measured proposals they put forward illustrate this.”
The panel said that the pub would have to stop serving at midnight on a Sunday and could otherwise serve drinks until 1am, with half an hour drinking up time each night.
Previously it opened at 10am on a Friday and Saturday and could stay open until 2am the next morning and on Sundays it opened at 10am until 1am the next morning.
The pub’s High Street door would have to shut at 9pm and be used as a fire exit only – to reduce noise. From 9pm, the back door would be the main way in and out for customers.
Customers would not be allowed in the back garden from 11pm – and six people at most could smoke outside at any one time, without drinks, the panel said.
All live music and cabaret must end by 11pm and no speakers would be allowed in the garden area.
The council’s environmental health team would set the levels on a noise limiter in consultation with neighbours, the panel added.
And after 9.30pm on Friday and Saturday evenings the pub would have to have at least one person on the door.
