One neighbour told the owner: ‘I’m woken up nearly every Friday and Saturday night by the noise from your premises or from people spilling out from your premises.’
Rosita’s cafe and bar in Caerphilly town centre opened last year, but isn’t totally popular with the neighbours(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
A bar owner’s late-night plans have been largely successful despite stiff opposition from neighbours over noise and disturbance concerns.
Martin Rees, of Rosita’s cafe and bar in Caerphilly town centre, said he wanted the venue to offer “something for everyone” – ranging from daytime meals with views of the town’s famous castle to late-night entertainment.
His plans centred around expanding the business into a new outdoor area, and allowing recorded music to be played indoors until 1am on weekends, rather than the existing cut-off time of 11pm.
But several neighbours objected to the plans, telling Caerphilly council they were already experiencing regular problems with noise at weekends.
Resident Kim Newbury told Mr Rees there was “a big disconnect between what you believe is happening and what we see is happening”.
She said: “I’m woken up nearly every Friday and Saturday night by the noise from your premises or from people spilling out from your premises.”
She claimed some people were urinating or vomiting in nearby bushes. “I’ve been living here for 40 years and I’ve never experienced it as badly,” she said, adding it was “a shame the onus is on residents” to prove there were noise problems.
Another resident Julie Prosser said she was “not against Rosita’s” and had lived in the area for 37 years “without any complaints about any business”.
But she claimed the business had changed from its “original advertisements of being a relaxed all-day dining experience from breakfast to dinner into a nightclub, indoors and outdoors, until the early hours, every weekend”.
Ms Prosser also questioned how the complaints and evidence submitted by neighbours like herself had not shown a link to statutory nuisance.
A council environmental health officer said his team had been unable to establish a “statutory nuisance” during callouts linked to Rosita’s.
In their decision, the committee’s members agreed to back a revised application from Mr Rees which sought permission to play live music indoors between midday and 1am, and to play recorded music for an extra hour – until midnight – on Fridays and Saturdays.
Use of the new outdoor area will be permitted until 11pm, and that time will also be the cut-off for entry and re-entry to the premises.
The new licence conditions also include tougher wording on door security, off-sales of alcohol, the provision of bins, and that windows and doors must be kept closed “during periods of entertainment”.
At the committee meeting, licensing officer Sandra Lewis-Williams said she believed the proposed licence would create “more enforceable and robust” rules for Rosita’s, which could be “acted upon in the event that the conditions are not met”. Stay informed on Caerphilly news by signing up to our newsletter here
