A new restaurant in Chelmsford has been given permission to stay open until 1am despite stiff opposition from neighbours. Chelmsford City Council licensing committee has allowed Funky Monk in Broomfield to operate on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays until 1am.
On the remaining days, all licensable activities must cease by 11pm. Among the objections, the parish council said it was concerned about public nuisance from the premises, which was formerly the Kings Arms pub.
It said the venue’s carpark was severely limited and increasing opening hours will lead to greater pressure on parking. It added it is currently looking into how to provide greater enforcement against vehicles believed to be driven by customers who park on the grass areas of Church Green in contravention of the double yellow lines. It said this causes damage to the grass and inconveniences residents on The Green trying to park at their home address.
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It said: “The extension of hours for music will have a significant impact upon the many residents in the immediate vicinity of the premises, who will be unable to avoid the noise coming from within the premises. The extension of opening hours will mean that persons leaving the premises at 1am in the morning, unless they have driven to the premises, will not be able to find any available public transport, as buses will have stopped and there are no taxi offices in the area, potentially resulting in loitering in the area with the potential for further noise and nuisance to residents.”
One resident said: “I understand that the Kings Arms pub/restaurant is applying to extend their opening times. I do not have concerns about opening earlier, but I do have concerns about extending opening until 1am. My reason for this is it would likely cause a public nuisance. The Kings Arms is situated in a residential area and is adjacent to houses.
“Their car park is adjacent to numerous gardens and having people accessing their cars and leaving the car park in the early hours of the morning will cause disturbance to the local residents. Also if music is continued past 10.30pm this would create a nuisance issue. On the positive side we are grateful that the company have restored the pub and opened it as a village facility and are keen to support village activities.”
The committee took the view that residents who choose to live in close proximity to an historic and long established village public house must be prepared to tolerate a fair amount of noise emanating from such premises during evenings up to a certain point in time, which might be later at weekends.
However, it agreed that a 1am extension on all days could be intolerable for neighbours. The applicant agreed to an extension of hours only to cover Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
The committee added: “However, having regard to all the circumstances, the committee concluded that if the application were to be granted in the terms originally applied for then there would be the likelihood (dependent, to a degree, on the nature and size of any given event) of local residents experiencing public nuisance, in the form of noise nuisance in the late evening and/or early hours of the following morning.”