Planners to rule on Penwortham bar's opening hours

The Lime Bar in Penwortham looks set to be denied a short extension of hours when South Ribble’s planning committee meets on Wednesday - just eight days after a licensing panel said ‘yes.’

The venue, which opened just over a year ago, is also expected to be refused live music and permission to use its outdoor seating area for an extra half hour.

Complaints from residents close by have forced officers recommend the changes should be refused because they would “exacerbate the detrimental impact on the residential amenity of occupants of the neighbouring properties.”

The Lime Bar wants to extend the time it can sell alcohol by 15 minutes to 10.45pm Sunday to Thursday and 11.45pm Saturday and Sunday. It also wants to increase drinking up time to 30 minutes rather than the current 15.

Last Tuesday a South Ribble licensing panel agreed to the request. But this week, just eight days on, council officers will recommend refusal by the planning committee.

Coun Cliff Hughes explained: “There’s a very simple reason why our licensing panel and our planning committee can, on occasion, reach differing verdicts on the same application, even when analysing identical, matching evidence.

“Both are governed by two completely different sets of legislation – which means they must each separately come to their decision based on different criteria considering different impacts to residents.”