3:24pm Wednesday 8th September 2010
By Michael Pickard
The future of a Watford pub is still in doubt two days after police appealed for its alcohol licence to be revoked.
Watford Borough Council's sub-licensing committee held an exhaustive six-hour hearing on Monday to hear the case for, and against, closing Champions Bar in St Albans Road.
However, the committee's final decision is yet to be announced.
Police had received a number of complaints from local residents about excessive noise since April this year.
And following a number of visits to the pub, they judged it to have breached several conditions of its licence, including music playing after licensed hours, windows left open while music was playing, a noise limiting device was found to be disconnected, and the kitchen extract filters were not maintained.
During one visit with a council enforcement officer and environmental health officer, on July 1, they saw a rat running across the kitchen floor and down a drain before serving Craig Daniel, the designated premises supervisor, with the licence review notice.
Subsequently, the Healy Group, the pub's premises licence holder, voluntarily surrendered the licence on July 9. Then on July 12, an application to transfer the premises licence to Boyd Grant was submitted, alongside an application to vary the designated premises supervisor to Vanessa Grant, Mr Grant's daughter.
This action “resurrected” the existing licence and allowed the pub to remain open up until Monday's hearing at Watford town hall.
Sergeant Ian Smith said the pub had breached the conditions on its licence a number of times since Mr Daniel took over as the pub's DPS in April this year and despite warnings that its licence could be revoked, nothing had changed.
He also pointed to the “business partnership” forged between Mr Daniel and Mr Boyd and said that as there had been no improvements since Mr Boyd became the licence holder in July, the situation would not change in the future.
Sgt Smith told the hearing: “This application was brought on the back of a number of breaches over a period of several months. We have heard from residents about the blight it's put on their lives and also that the premises, in the past, has been operated without causing the same level of problems experienced since Craig Daniel took over.
“I do suggest that we have demonstrated a clear link between Boyd Grant and the problems that have been going on. On a number of occasions he's been clearly involved in the breaches.
“If they were serious about addressing the problems they would have done a lot more by now. It's very easy to say we will do that but we have heard very little about what they have done. To say things have got better is clearly not correct at all.
“These people have had ample chance to turn it around and to come to this hearing and say they will do something is unacceptable.”
Julian Skeens, representing Mr Grant and his daughter, said it would be “totally inappropriate” to remove the pub's licence.
He also suggested a number of conditions that could be added to the current licence, such as a noise limiter on all music played and no drinking in the garden after 9pm.
And giving evidence, Miss Grant said that if there were any future problems, she would hand in her licence.
“She [Miss Grant] is coming in with clean hands and is asking you to amend the licence so she becomes DPS,” Mr Skeens said. “The licensee and DPS have made a full commitment and should there be any transgression, clearly what has been said today will be held against them and the result will be inevitable.”
Should the licence be revoked or any other penalties be issued, the ruling will not come into force for 21 days, pending any appeal.
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