"Undesirables" not welcome at Chorley pub where man was left with serious eye injury

An “influx of undesirables” led to an incident at a Chorley pub that left a man needing eye surgery, councillors have been told.
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Chorley Council’s licensing committee heard that the Bretherton Arms had since joined the borough’s Pub Watch scheme in the wake of the attack last month – so that it can now share in intelligence about drinkers who are banned from other venues in the area.

The designated premises supervisor in charge of the hostelry – on Eaves Lane – has also been replaced. That was a requirement of one of a series of conditions imposed on the licence by the authority almost three weeks ago.

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Committee members decided that the rest of those so-called “interim steps" should continue for the time being – including one requiring CCTV coverage of a rear yard area, which was the scene of the violent incident in the early hours of 13th September. A camera was trained on the spot, but had not been working at the time.

A new premises supervisor is in place at the Bretherton Arms (image: Google)A new premises supervisor is in place at the Bretherton Arms (image: Google)
A new premises supervisor is in place at the Bretherton Arms (image: Google)

The committee had previously heard that the clientele at the venue had changed after the national lockdown was lifted over the summer, leading to a spate of complaints about noise and disturbance.

A new premises supervisor, Nicola Steele, will be in day-to-day control of the pub while the brewery – Star Pubs and Bars – has taken on the licence directly.

However, the licence-holder of the last four years, Nick Yates, remains at the venue as a tenant manager.

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He told the committee that up until this summer, his tenure at the pub had been “incident-free”.

“[This] incident was caused by an influx of undesirables which have now been nipped in the bud.

“Nicola has brought a completely new, fresh approach to running the Bretherton. Through Pub Watch and actually being in the pub [herself], she knows who not to allow in – and that’s being rigorously controlled,” Mr. Yates said.

Another of the temporary conditions added to the licence was for door staff to be employed on Fridays and Saturdays after 10pm. While the current coronavirus curfew on hospitality venues means that such staff have not yet been required, the meeting heard that Ms. Steele had voluntarily drafted them in for the 6-10pm period on those days.

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However, solicitor Andrew Cochrane – on behalf of Star Pubs and Bars – said it was hoped that once patronage at the pub was “where she wants [it] to be, they won’t be required”. However, the meeting heard that attendants would still be likely to be used for special events where a risk assessment demanded it.

Mr. Cochrane indicated that if and when circumstances change, the brewery may apply for the interim steps – such as the post-10pm requirement for door staff and an earlier Friday and Saturday closing time of 1am – to be formally removed.

Committee chair Matthew Lynch said members wanted to be reassured that the licence-holder had “a clear plan” and that “when something goes awry, you can deal with it in an appropriate manner so that no further issues occur”.

Mr. Cochrane said: “It wasn’t so much that the measures weren’t there [before now], but that the previous designated premises supervisor wasn’t complying with them.

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“Nicola has worked for many years in care homes – she is used to following rules and procedures, so there is no ambiguity.”

The meeting was told that Ms. Steele currently works as a care home manager, but was able to organise her time so that she could operate the Bretherton Arms along with her partner.

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