Whitby Goth Weekend: Little Angel pub’s application for longer beer garden hours approved despite noise concerns

A council licensing committee has approved The Little Angel pub’s application for its beer garden to be used longer than usual over two days of the upcoming Whitby Goth Weekend.

The pub on 18 Flowergate, Whitby, will be allowed to use its beer garden area “for the sale of alcohol between 10.30pm and 11.59pm from October 27 to 28”. The pub’s licence states that normally the use of its beer garden has to end by 10.30pm.

North Yorkshire Council’s licensing committee met on Friday (Oct 13) to discuss concerns raised by the authority’s environmental health officer that approval of the temporary event licence would cause “a public nuisance”.

The meeting also heard from Richard Nattriss, who applied for the Little Angel’s temporary event licence.

Prior to the meeting, Tim Croot, a council environmental health officer, said that the pub had been issued with “three noise abatement notices” last year, one of which “specifically related to the beer garden”.

It was noted the beer garden noise abatement notice was withdrawn after it was agreed that its use would be limited to 10.30pm.

Speaking after the meeting Mr Nattriss, the applicant, said the council’s environmental health officer had remained “adamant” the licence should not be approved.

However, he said because of measures he had taken to minimise noise from the beer garden, the licensing committee approved his application.

He said: “[The Goth Weekend] is all about being part of a community and meeting friends you haven’t seen for six months, having a good chat. Everything was very amicable and they felt that I had put enough in place to warrant it going through.”

Mr Nattriss said he has arranged for an SIA member of security staff to be present in the beer garden and has also installed cameras so the garden can be “monitored from the bar”.

Whitby Goth Weekend is a twice-yearly music festival which will next be held from Friday, October 27 to Sunday, October 29.