A pub has been refused permission to extend its licence after neighbours complained that noise and traffic was impacting their lives, writes Richard Whitehouse, Local Democracy reporter.

The Preston Gate Inn in Poughill, near Bude, had applied to Cornwall Council to extend its licence so that it could serve drinks, stay open and have live music later.

Under the proposals the pub wanted to serve drinks and have live music until midnight and stay open until 1am. The current licence allows drinks to be served and live music to continue to 11pm and close at midnight.

However the council’s licensing act sub-committee rejected the application saying that the concerns raised by people living nearby were “reasonable and convincing” and that if allowed it would create public nuisance.

Landlord Paul Lathom told the committee that the pub wanted to increase the amount of live music events saying that during the lockdown people had missed music and culture.

He explained that he and his partner had run the pub for almost 10 years and that the live music events had been a success.

Mr Lathom said that he wanted to work with residents to tackle any problems and said that during music events he kept windows and doors closed to minimise disturbance.

He also said that the pub encouraged customers not to park on the road by the pub and instead use a public car park which he said was a three-minute walk away.

The landlord said that whenever there had been incidents with customers parking inconsiderately he and his staff had been happy to ask customers to move their vehicles.

One local resident, Mark Samuels, said that parking in the area was “an absolute nightmare”.

He said that the pub was located in a cul-de-sac and said parking had been made worse as the pub was using its own car park to provide tables during the pandemic.

Mr Samuels said that “on several occasions I have not been able to get off my own driveway” due to customers’ cars being parked in the road.

He said: “We have a constant stream of people driving up the road, turning around and driving back down the road looking for somewhere to park.”

Andrew and Anne Denton had also objected to the application and said that the issue of traffic had been a problem for some time.

Mrs Denton added: “Many of us have been very sympathetic to the licensee, but this application is making something that is already very difficult for local residents worse.”

She said that it was “unacceptable” for the music licence to be extended to midnight and said that the comments from near neighbours were “quite distressing”.

And she added that it would not be fair to allow the pub to remain open until 1am “when people could reasonably expect to be asleep”.

Mr Denton added: “I have no objection to the pub making a living but it should not be at the expense of residents’ mental health.”

The committee agreed to refuse the application to vary the licence saying that it would undermine the licensing objectives around public nuisance and said it was “reasonable and proportionate to refuse the application”.