The landlords of one of Ludlow’s oldest pubs have applied for a 2am licence because they believe the town is ready for a late-opening venue, and they say more than 300 people support them.
Michael Ashton, of the Bull Hotel, told the Journal: “We’ve applied for a licence to open until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays and 3am on bank holidays.
“I think Ludlow is well overdue for somewhere opening late. It was tried in other places and failed. But we are already open until 1am and it’s working. It’s bringing a lot of business to the town. We have regular customers coming from Shrewsbury, Hereford and Birmingham and, generally speaking, we don’t have any trouble. When we do get anything, the bouncers are so quick, those responsible are thrown out.”
Mr Ashton said they were applying for the licence because they had been asked by customers if they could stay open later. They checked with the licensing office at South Shropshire District Council and started a petition in favour of the application which they left in the bar.
Mr Ashton said: “So many people were asking if they could write to support the application, it was easier to do a petition. Three hundred and fourteen people signed and the majority were local.”
The licensing office said they received two letters of support as well as the petition but also received 11 letters of objection from residents, the Environmental Health department and the police.
Tony Mantle, licensing officer for West Mercia Constabulary said: “I can confirm that the police have made representations about the application by the Bull Hotel have made.”
The district council office said residents’ complaints centred on fears about noise.
Mr Ashton said he understood residents’ concerns. He said: “The objections are about noise in the street and our customers aren’t in the street. They also complain about kick-out at 2am but we shut at 1am. We’ve said ‘that’s not us’, it’s coming from other pubs.”
He added: “The licence is only for what we do inside, we haven’t put in for any variations to what we do outside.
“We would never put on live music at 3am in the morning, who would come and see that?
“The plan is, if we can get the licence for inside, we will stop having the festival outside. In the long term, we want to stop that, we know people don’t like the noise.”
The decision on the licence will go before the district council’s licensing sub-committee on Thursday.
