Crown Wharf noise complaint licence review leads to canalside restrictions

Stone’s Crown Wharf pub will have to close its canalside drinking area to customers earlier at night after nearby residents said noise from the venue was making their lives a misery.

The Crown Wharf flagship brewery tap was opened by Joule’s in July 2021 and has gone on to win national awards for its design.

The opening of the pub marked a major return to the traditional home town of Joule’s Brewery, which is now based in Market Drayton. A community theatre and heritage centre are also due to open in the coming months as part of the transformation of Crown Wharf.

Since its opening, the pub’s meeting space has become a venue for a number of charities and organisations, including two Women’s Institute branches, an agricultural society, a gaming group and a community choir. But the venue has not proved music to the ears of some residents in nearby Trent Close and Trent Court, who say they have suffered sleep deprivation and endured loud singing, shouting, shrieks and foul language that can be heard from their homes.

Stafford Borough Council’s environmental health department called for a review of the pub’s premises licence after receiving noise complaints from more than a dozen residents. The first complaint was received in August 2021 – just weeks after the venue opened its doors – and residents affected by the disturbance have kept logs and recorded sounds from the pub heard in their homes.

A recording was played to the borough council’s licensing sub-committee at a hearing on Tuesday, the 8th of November, of choir practice at the pub that could be heard from a residential property.

And a noise log presented to sub-committee members in a report revealed sound levels from the pub recorded at residents’ homes had exceeded 70 decibels on occasion -above the noise level recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Resident Pat Deeks told the panel:

“I’m almost at my wits end at the moment because of the stress this is causing me. Joules Brewery show total disregard to residents – they are driven by avarice and they have reached out to social media for support.

“Calls and complaints have often met with hostility by staff. I would like the managing directors to exchange their properties with mine so they can experience the devastating of living beside what is effectively a nightclub.”

Another resident, David Tabbernor, said:

Article continues after this message

“For over 12 months now we have dreaded good weather, as this only brings added misery to our neighbourhood. As the weather conditions improved, noise levels became more invasive, with loud music, shouting and screaming and offensive language, particularly at weekends when the noise disturbance started at 2pm, continuing until after 11.

“My wife is often brought to tears of frustration about our future, normally a totally alien characteristic. We have both experienced regular lack of sleep – unheard of pre-Wharf – owing to worries about the situation we find ourselves in, and suffering detrimental effects on our mental wellbeing.”

The council’s environmental health department called for a series of changes to the premises licence, including stopping the use of the outdoor space on the canal façade, which includes a balcony. They also asked for permission for live outdoor music to be removed, as well as outdoor late night refreshment after 11pm.

But bosses at Joule’s Brewery described the proposals as “draconian” and said the review “felt like an orchestrated attack on our business.” They added that they had already started closing the canalside area to customers earlier in the evening in a bid to reduce noise nuisance.

The council received 16 emails in support of Crown Wharf, a report to the sub-committee said.

Anna Brakel, brand operations manager at Joule’s Brewery, said:

“We are not a nightclub, nor are we a late-night entertainment venue. There are other sites in Stone that offer this, and it is not a market we are interested in.”

“Live music is a core element of our offer on Fridays and Sundays. Live music was to start at 9.50pm on Fridays but this was brought forward to 9pm to ensure it finished earlier.

“On Sundays music is from 7pm and both acts are acoustic. The closing of the terrace would be excessive, depriving people of enjoying the canal if they are not allowed to go outside with a cup of coffee.”

Pub manager Emma Mason, who grew up in the town, said:

“Crown Wharf is first and foremost a community venue, from the minute we open our doors at 11am, and there is no charge for community groups to use the boardroom. We are an employer of a huge number of people – our team is nearly 60.

“We do not encourage binge drinking and I can assure you Crown Wharf is not run as a nightclub. Our ethos is to create a safe space for people to enjoy.”

Committee members agreed a condition to be added to the premises licence to ensure that the outdoor areas on the canal side, including the terrace and balcony areas, are not used by customers on Fridays and Saturdays after 10pm, and on other days from 9.30pm. They also urged the licence holder to continue to engage with nearby residents.

The committee “found that there are ongoing issues with noise escape from the canal side outdoor area of the premises, which is undermining the licensing objective relating to the prevention of public nuisance”. Their decision notice added: “There is a fundamental issue with the canal side outdoor area being a large outdoor space for over 200 customers, and residential noise sensitive properties being situated only 30 metres away.

“The committee would urge the licence holder to continue discussions with Environmental Health officers in order to explore additional ways to attenuate noise nuisance from the outdoor canal side location. And (it would) ask that the licence holder and Environmental Health consider joint instruction of an expert to prepare a report for noise nuisance assessment for the outdoor areas of the premises that considers options for noise attenuation measures to address the issues with noise nuisance.”