THE owner of a Sheffield pub has accused the council of operating an unfair planning policy – after councillors refused to allow him to extend opening times to match those of his competitors.
Kane Yeardley, who reopened The York in Broomhill a year ago as a pub and restaurant, wants to stay open an hour later each night – until 12.30am in the week, and 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays.
His staff have to call last orders before competitors The Broomhill Tavern round the corner, and The Fox and Duck on the same street.
Before Mr Yeardley’s company Forum Cafe Bars Ltd bought The York, the pub served until the same time as the other pubs in Broomhill.
But when he originally applied to revamp the pub, officers took the opportunity to rein in opening hours.
Now a meeting of the city centre, south and east planning board has refused his application to extend the hours.
Mr Yeardley told The Star: “We would like to compete on a fair, open field and it seems unfair that we have to close earlier than our competitors, when we have really invested in refurbishing the pub.
“We have never had any disturbance, and a lot of our customers don’t understand why we can’t open until the same time as The Broomhill Tavern and The Fox and Duck.”
Planning officer Chris Heeley told councillors the other pubs in Broomhill are still operating under rules put in place before planning laws were written and only the terms of their licence dictate when they close.
He said: “The inconsistency arises when there are no planning controls.”
Mr Heeley said the issue was muddied by an ongoing effort to get takeaways in Broomhill to stick to their opening hours after complaints of young people congregating late at night.
He said: “We are fighting quite a difficult battle trying to bring takeaways into line. It does cause difficulty with trying to disperse customers late at night.
“We feel the more premises that are open later, the worse the problem will be.”
More than 50 nearby neighbours submitted objections to the later opening hours.
Broomhill Action and Neighbourhood Group member John Birtwhistle said: “We are very pleased this has become a very well-managed community pub. That is why we are disappointed it is trying to go after a different, nocturnal, clientele.”
Sean Garvey, of Dirty Dick’s Ale House in Halifax, West Yorkshire, bought the freehold of the Enterprise Inns site, previously known as the Royal Oak, on 27 April.
He had to pay an extra £600 upfront in charges to energy firm Npower, which were later refunded, and had his electricity cut off, after a previous licensee at his pub failed to settle his bill.
Garvey said he had been receiving utility bills in the previous tenant’s name, even though he asked Npower to change the account details.
Npower said it would be unable to change the details until it received the property’s Land Registry documents. Garvey only received his documents on 15 June two months after buying the premises. He admitted an “oversight” in failing to send documents to Npower immediately. Npower said it made two pre-disconnection visits to the premises on 2 June and 21 June — but Garvey said he has no knowledge of it.
On 15 August the manager of Dirty Dick’s was visited by an Npower employee asking for the previous tenant and saying the premises would be disconnected unless payment of the outstanding balance was made.
Garvey, who was not on the premises, phoned head office where he was asked to send over the property’s deeds. As this took place, the Npower employee brought in two policemen to help shut off the pub’s electricity.
To have his electricity reconnected he had to pay £428 legal fees and a £150 re-connection charge. Garvey told other licensees: “Get the Land Registry documents in as soon as you can.”
Npower’s response
A spokesman said deciding to cut off a customer’s electricity is not taken lightly, and that it contacted Sean Garvey and his partner Kirsty Leach for the Land Registry documents but did not receive them.
The spokesman said: “While we sympathise with Mr Garvey, we do not feel we are at fault. We will only ever disconnect a customer’s supply when all options have been exhausted. We gave Mr Garvey numerous opportunities to produce the documents to prevent the disconnection.”
