We had to buy National Trust and Bristol Zoo membership to escape dreadful noise from Downend pub
A pub that shut down after holding illegal “parties” during a Covid lockdown will be reopened after South Gloucestershire councillors gave the go-ahead.
The White Swan in North Street, Downend, closed in 2021 and has been fenced off because of vandalism and break-ins.
But property developer Andrew Morgan has bought the pub and was granted a premises licence by South Gloucestershire Council licensing sub-committee on Thursday, October 2.
Four neighbours objected to the application saying the establishment caused antisocial behaviour, alleging there had been drug dealing, customers urinating on the street, and verbal abuse.
One resident said: “In the summers we could not sit in our garden due to noise disturbance.
“We had to buy National Trust membership and Bristol Zoo membership so we had somewhere to escape.
“No one should have to do this, you should be able to enjoy your home.”
Another claimed sex acts were captured on CCTV in the private lane next to the pub and that pubgoers regularly shouted and swore.
But Mr Morgan told the panel: “I am a completely new applicant from any previous owner, landlady or landlord.
“We’re looking to turn it back into a well-managed pub.
“It’s not in our interest to have a pub that’s running wild because we own property at the back and to the right-hand side of the pub with family members or tenants living in, so it’s not in our interest to have a saloon-type pub.
“All of these objections are a legacy from a previous tenant.
“It hasn’t been run very well – terribly, in fact – it hasn’t made a profit in many years.
“I’m a completely new applicant, a completely new owner, I don’t even know who the previous landlord was.
“I don’t want the pub to be as it was, I want it to be a pub where you and your wife or partner or boyfriend or whatever are happy to go in there, have a drink, without the fear of a fight breaking out in the corner.
“It’s all down to strong management, and that ‘s what a pub needs.
“It’s been five years. The troublemakers have drifted off somewhere else.”
Asked by the panel why he wanted to turn it into a pub, he said: “Because South Gloucestershire Council rejected all my planning applications to turn it into houses, at the expense of £60,000.”
The panel granted a premises licence for live music from 1pm to 10pm daily, recorded music indoors from 1pm to 11pm, recorded music outdoors until 10pm and alcohol sales from 1pm to 11pm.
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