Councillor Calls Trinity Fields London's '‘Largest Beer Garden'
Meeting rejects application for extension of licence
Trinity Fields, Trinity Road. Picture: Google Streetview
July 18, 2023
A Wandsworth park has been turned into the city’s “largest beer garden” according to a Conservative member of the council since permission was given to sell alcohol there. Cllr Rosemary Birchall made the comment after at a hearing to decide whether to allow Trinity Fields Trust to keep the pavilion’s outside area at Trinity Fields open an hour later.
The extension would have allowed people to drink alcohol in the pavilion’s outside area on Trinity Road until 10pm every day instead of 9pm. But Wandsworth Council’s licensing committee threw out the application after a hearing on 5 July.
Councillor Birchall told the committee locals “had to put up with very loud and boisterous activities nearly every evening and well past the closing-off time of 9pm, and often until 11.30pm” last summer, after the trust’s current licence was granted.
She said, “Residents’ concerns were about the excessive amount of noise that [the current licence] would cause to those living in the vicinity, with the creation of the largest beer garden in London. Their fears have been realised.”
Locals claimed the trust had breached conditions on its current licence. A statement read out from neighbour Nike Bielby said the trust had “not upheld the conditions of this licence”. It added, “It is unfair that our sleep is disrupted due to rowdy behaviour late into the evening. We didn’t sign up to living opposite a pub garden.”
Neighbour Melanie Bearne said, “This is a residential area, filled with young families. We live metres from the fields, with children’s bedrooms at the front of the house. When Trinity Fields Trust are having their noisy, outside drinking events, my children cannot get to sleep until past 9.30pm and if you let this application for 10pm through, then way after 10pm seven nights a week.”
She added locals “should not be having to put up with drunk men standing on the street, directly across from the house, metres away, yelling, chanting and singing at 11.45pm”.
Mum-of-two Mary Berry also said, “I have a right when it’s a hot summer night to be able to have the window open so it’s cool, but I can’t. I have to shut the windows, I have to put earplugs in, I have to put the children at the back of the house.”
Licensing manager Caroline Sharkey said the authority had investigated all complaints and raised no objections to the new application. Licensing consultant Stewart Gibson, representing the trust, said the trust is not breaching conditions on its licence. He argued the application was “simple” and the extension would fall “well within the recommended hours of the council”.
He said the pavilion’s outdoor area is used mainly in summer after cricket matches which often finish in the evenings, leaving little time to enjoy a drink afterwards. He claimed, “asking those drinking alcohol to move inside at 9pm can often cause more noise nuisance than it’s designed to prevent”, while the extra hour would ensure “a more organised migration back to the pavilion up until 10pm”.
Mr Gibson said some of the complaints related to days when temporary event notices were in place. These allow for one-off events, including selling alcohol, without a licence. He said the trust was “perfectly legally entitled to apply for temporary events” and that many claims made at the hearing were “simply not true”.
He added there had been “teething problems” when the current licence was granted, which resulted in the licensing authority issuing a warning letter in July 2022. But the authority had not taken any further action and many of the objections related to a period before the warning letter was issued, he said.
The consultant said the trust had since “got their act together and they are running a good ship”. He said the premises had “been well-run in the last 11 months” and complied with all conditions. He invited the authority to carry out an inspection to confirm this.
But the committee rejected the application after ruling the “impact of an extra hour would undermine the prevention of public nuisance licensing objective” due to the pavilion’s location. Members said the trust provided a “useful community facility” but raised concerns about how close some locals live to the pavilion.
The decision said, “Members considered it more likely that customers would remain outside longer with the same disruptive behaviour described by objectors continuing into the night.”
They decided to accept extra conditions offered by Mr Gibson at the meeting, however, as “being positive measures which would help address some of the issues raised by objectors”. These conditions include staff constantly monitoring the pavilion’s outside area and providing a phone number for neighbours to raise any concerns.
Charlotte Lillywhite - Local Democracy Reporter