Councillors support late closing time for The Duck, on Castlegate, Newark, in hope it'll boost town's night time economy
A bid by a Newark pub to stay open until 4am on Friday and Saturday nights has been supported by councillors.
The Duck, on Castlegate, which opened last year, has applied Newark and Sherwood District Council for a change to its premise licence.
It hopes to be able to serve alcohol until 4am on Friday and Saturday nights and until 2am any other night of the week.
The pub also wants to play live music until 3.30am on Fridays and Saturdays and until midnight in the week and on Sundays.
Town councillors voted to unanimously support the application, suggesting it would be good for the town’s night time economy.
Member Johno Lee said by allowing the Duck to open later, it could reduce the amount of anti-social behaviour in the town centre.
He said: “There’s only two pubs that are open past a certain time and what I find is that the anti-social behaviour accumulates around those premises.
“If you can spread it out and have more places open, that will actually benefit the town.”
David Lloyd noted residents in the area may be unhappy about the changes to the premise licensing, but that that shouldn’t put businesses off applying for similar applications.
“As you may recall, the Flying Circus was required to shut down their music venue at the rear because a house behind it complained,” Mr Lloyd said.
“The Duck has been there for much longer than the houses nearby. I’m not saying to people that you should live in a hovel and tolerate what comes, but if you rent or purchase premises above or adjacent to a pub, live with it.
“We’re shutting places because of people saying that it’s noisy on a Friday night. Move further away from the pub.
“I wouldn’t want to put off a successful entrepreneur that’s investing in this town because two people don’t like the sound of his radio.”
Diane Ledger said: “I’ve never been in, but it seems like he (the owner) has invested quite a lot of money into it to bring it back up to a great standard.
“I’ve not heard about any issues around it or any of its patrons that go there and I’ve not heard of any anti-social behaviour associated with it, so I don’t see why we’d need to object to this application.”
Irene Brown: “I have no objections to this application. I’ve been lucky, as have most, to have actually have been inside the Duck and it’s beautiful. You can feel safe in there.”
Member Lisa Geary also said that she hoped that this application would encourage potential investors for the Corn Exchange to come forward.
“It’s very nice to see what lovely conversions have been done to some of the older buildings in this town,” she said.
The application will now go before the district council for decision.
