The Rising Sun in Somerset wins fight to keep famous beer garden open

A Somerset pub has won a fight with village locals to keep a bar in its beer garden – which was named Britain’s best in 2020.

The beer garden at the The Rising Sun sits on the banks of the River Chew with views of the Pensford Viaduct and also features its own external bar.

St Austell’s Brewery, which took on the pub in 2019, recently discovered that this bar had never been licensed and applied to Bath and North East Somerset Council to make it legal

The bar would be open until 10pm and be supervised while open.

But a group from Pensford came along to the pub’s licensing hearing in Bath on Thursday 1 December to oppose the application.

'There is no reason why this application should be refused'

They said loud music from the garden was disturbing them and that the pub wanted to turn into an events venue.

The Rising Sun’s solicitor, Ewen Macgregor, argued that having a bar in the garden is positive.

He said: "It assists with customer flow, it assists with supervision, and it also stops customers from the pub from walking across the car park to the external garden."

Mr Macgregor said that refusing the licence would not stop people drinking there, as that was allowed regardless - it was only concerned whether they could buy drinks there.

He added that neither police nor environmental protection were opposing the application, and that it had received supporting comments from some people in the village.

He said: “There is no reason why this application should be refused.”

But other people from Pensford argued there was too much loud music coming from the garden and which is an issue which has caused friction in the small rural community.

Richard Garlant told the meeting he did not think anybody minded people having a drink outside.

He said: “It’s when they started playing outside music and held weddings. Since then, we have had problems."

'We suffer from excessive noise'

In a comment made outside the meeting, landlord Lisa Faulkner claimed that the pub had only played amplified music outside on 12 days of the year.

Kenneth Jones, who says he often has to leave his home due to noise from the Rising Sun, said: “I wish to say that we don’t wish to damage the profitability of this pub. However, we suffer from excessive noise from this pub.”

Chris Danson added: “These complaints have always been met with a combative response of ‘we have got a licence.’”

Council officers say the Rising Sun has a licence to play music in the beer garden.

Rob Appleyard, chairing the licensing committee, said it was not the forum for complaints about music. He said: “All we are here to determine is the location people can purchase drinks from.”

The committee decided that the bar in the beer garden should be able to continue to sell drinks and granted the licence.

Credit: John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter