Caister pub's 24-hour drinks refusal

A PUB in Caister has been refused a 24-hour licence due to concerns from local residents.

The Green Gate on the High Street had wanted to serve alcohol 24-hours a day, seven days a week as well as serve food between 11pm and 5am.

However, members of the borough council's licensing committee took on board the comments from locals who claimed longer opening hours would lead to an increase in noise and anti-social behaviour, and extended the pub's licence until 2am instead of 24-hours.

At last Friday's meeting, landlady Debbie Wheeler told the committee the 24-hour licence application had been made in order to extend the business.

She said: “We have started opening for breakfasts at 9am and we would like to be able to serve alcohol should someone want half a lager with their breakfast. It's certainly not for people who go out of an evening and want to continue drinking. We have a lot of functions and we would like to be able to go on a bit longer if people wanted to do that.”

The council received two letters of objection - one from Lacon Road resident Julie Mobbs who was present at the meeting, held at the town hall. She said her two-year-old daughter was often “disturbed” by noise from the pub and had difficulty sleeping, adding they would often go to her parents' house to sleep at weekend to avoid the noise.

Ms Mobbs said she had also experienced problems with people leaving the pub and said she had witnessed men urinating on her wall, glasses broken in her garden and vomit on the pathway outside her house.

“The thought of this happening seven nights a week is awful,” she said.

The committee took just over five minutes to reach their decision and chairman George Jermany explained the 24-hour licence had not been given due to the concerns raised.

It means the pub can serve alcohol and serve food until 2am. The amount of hours it can play music for disco and karaoke was also extended until 2am.