Revoked licence pub bids to reopen (From York Press)

Owners of former Little John pub in bid to reopen as the Blue Boar

8:27am Wednesday 6th June 2012 in Pints of View By Jennifer Bell, jennifer.bell@thepress.co.uk

THE owners of a York pub will make their bid for a licence to reopen it under a new name next week.

Enterprise Inns is looking to relaunch the Little John, in Castlegate, as the Blue Boar, which would take its title from the inn where notorious highwayman Dick Turpin’s body was taken after he was hanged at Knavesmire in 1739.

The company’s application for a licence will be discussed at a City of York Council licensing and gambling hearing next Monday, although people living in Castlegate and Friargate have raised fears the new pub will lead to an increase in noise, litter and anti-social behaviour in the area.

Last September, the licence held by the then landlord of the “gay-friendly” Little John, Chris Ransome, was revoked by the council after he was twice found with cocaine in his flat above the pub.

He received a caution for the first offence and a £200 fine for the second. The pub closed shortly afterwards, with Enterprise Inns revealing in April that it was planning to reopen it with a new name and look.

A report which will go before the licensing hearing said the firm had applied for a licence to serve alcohol between 10am and 1am every day and play music until 11pm between Sunday and Thursday and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

If it is granted, CCTV coverage would be installed and, after 9pm, drinking would be prevented at the outdoor smoking area and no more than ten customers would be allowed there at a time.

The licence conditions would also mean staff would have to carry out hourly patrols of the premises after 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and customers would not be able to gather outside the pub’s entrance unless they were queuing to get in.

One objection from a Castlegate resident, sent to the council, said the area was “generally quiet” after 10pm, adding: “The addition of drinkers until 1am, with music to suit, would militate against this quietness, domesticity and general sobriety, and I dread the thought of having to make my way home through such clientele late at night.”

Another letter, from residents in Friargate, said they hoped a “clear and decisive plan or policy to police this area” would be introduced if the licence is granted, saying they had concerns about “increased crowd disorder” and drinkers using nearby lanes as toilets.