A neighbour and representatives of a pub in Wokingham town centre have clashed over music nights going on until 2am in its garden.
The Redan in Peach Street is run as a cocktail bar that has DJ events, closing at 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, midnight on Thursdays and 11pm the rest of the week.
But neighbour Christina Davis has accused the venue of causing a public disturbance, successfully requesting a licensing review to possibly change its operations.
A meeting was held at Wokingham Borough Council to decide on the review.
Miss Davis said: “The music is not normal DJ-type music that we would have known years ago.
“It’s a rave-type hypnotic euphoria type of music, and it has considerable bass which travels down those streets.
“It is clearly the early hours which are the issue. I wouldn’t want anyone to be deprived of a nice pub.
“I’ve been in there, my friends and neighbours go in there. But the problem is after 11pm when this type of music starts.
And it’s only since last year that the DJ has been operating from outdoors, where it becomes a public nuisance.”
She also mentioned that a licensing application for the Leafy Elephant gin bar was clipped from 2.30am to midnight, and a recent loud music event put on by Sit and Spin finished at 10pm.
It was also established that a licensing comment from Tina Davis was separate from Miss Davis, who called the review.
The fellow neighbour conceded that town centres are loud, but complained about being kept awake until 1am and 2am.
Andy Rogers, the manager, was present. In his written submission, he said the pub is “very well run” and any clipping of hours would “have a significant detrimental effect on the business and would drive customers to head to Reading and away from Wokingham.”
He also mentioned a £40,000 upgrade completed in March last year.
Councillor Rebecca Margetts (Conservative, Finchampstead) said: “You mentioned a significant investment about a year ago at the premises, and it does seem that this is something that has changed at the pub, and in what you are doing.
“Something has changed in the premises to bring these complaints forward, because there haven’t been these complaints before.
“What has changed, because these complaints have come from somewhere, and are causing the public to be concerned.”
Mr Rogers was represented by licensing lawyer Piers Warne, who explained the upgrade was to create a covered outdoor area as the indoors had ‘nooks and crannies’ which would make music performances difficult.
He said: “It’s very difficult to put on music inside, without causing lots of pinch points, and actually it caused more complaints than it was worth, so actually the refurb and the investment was to allow this, which is why its so important to The Redan to be able to have music outside, clearly without undermining the public nuisance objectives.”
The review hearing took place on Wednesday, July 30.
The decision made by councillors Margetts, Chris Cooke (Liberal Democrats, Wescott), and Kay Gilder (Conservative, South Lake) will be issued in five days.
