HEREFORDSHIRE: late-night Kington music licence allowed

The Swan Hotel in Kington already has a licence to host music and serve alcohol until 11.30pm six nights a week.

But Casey Nicholls-Floyd applied in September to extend this to 1am, in order to “develop a programme of occasional entertainment including vocalists and other live musicians”.

Ten objections were submitted by local residents, of which six were ruled as relevant.

Mr Nicholls-Floyd had been warned by licensing officers in August last year for allowing dancing and loud music at the Swan past the 11.30pm cutoff.

Given these, a decision on the case was passed to Herefordshire Council’s licensing subcommittee of councillors.

Mr Nicholls-Floyd “has been successfully running the independently-owned Swan for seven years,” his agent Chris Lucan told councillors – during which time “it has never come to the substantive notice of the responsible authorities”.

Neither the police nor council officials had objected to the current bid, he said. And it was not clear that any recent crime incidents recorded in the area related to the Swan in particular, “and the police are your source of expert guidance on this”.

On the noise issue, he said the licensing application “is already heavily conditioned” to prevent noise vibration, and it obliged the hotel to comply immediately with official notice to curtail noise, and to display signs to keep the noise down.

In light of local views, the hotel had also withdrawn its bid to enable late-night outdoor entertainment, meaning the outdoor area would not be in use after 11pm he said.

This appeared to satisfy the subcommittee, which approved the amended application.