12:00pm Wednesday 10th June 2009
The new landlord of a Pembroke Dock pub has been forced to cut back drinking hours because of a string of incidents in and around the pubBush Tavern which "took off like a moon shuttle" when the hours were extended in 2007.
"We did not object to the extra hours when the former landlord applied for them in 2007," police licensing officer, Tony Davies, told Pembrokeshire County Council's licensing committee.
"From then on the number of incidents has taken off like a moon shuttle at Cape Canaveral. The escalation was tremendous and it was all down to the extra hours."
A log of incidents produced to the committee showed that in the year leading up to the extension of hours police were called to the pub twice. In the year after that number had risen to almost 40.
However, many of the incidents reported in the 70 page document were contested by landlord Keith Francis, who took over the pub from Robert Edwards recently.
He complained that many of the records were calls to the police station which had ended with no convictions or follow up by the police.
And the veteran landlord proved how devoted he was to pub safety by showing the committee a bottle top spike prevention cap which he designs and manufactures himself.
"There are problems I'm sure, but I can't believe that it has all stemmed from the Bush Tavern, there are a lot of other premises within a 5 minute walk," said Mr Francis, who asked for a three month reprieve to show he could turn the pub around.
But the licensing committee were unconvinced and decided to rein in the opening hours of the Bush Tavern to 11pm, from its current hours of 1am from Thursday to Saturday and 12.30am from Monday to Wednesday.
On advice from the pollution control team they also specified that no drinks should be taken outside of the pub after 9pm to prevent a noise nuisance to nearby residences.
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