Late drinking test-case delayed

The applicants withdrew 48 hours before the hearing.

But Wilton Bar partners Matt Dargan and Richard Over say they will be back before the August deadline for new Rother-issued licences with a revised application designed to "suit everybody."

As revealed in last week's Observer, the application for the Wilton and its Cellar Bar was opposed by police on the grounds that they are already encountering so much late-night lawlessness that the town centre has been made the subject of a Dispersal Order.

Wednesday's Rother licensing panel, comprising Cllr John Potter of Ticehurst and Bexhill members Cllr Chris Starnes and Cllr Joanne Gadd (not Cllr Brian Gadd as reported last week) also had a report listing 34 pages of letters of objection from neighbours.

Under new legislation transferring responsibility for licensing from the courts to local authorities, all local licensees must obtain new licences from Rother before August.

Together with an application from Ye Olde Belle in Rye, the Wilton application for a new licence with extended hours had been seen as an important local test-case for the longer opening times permissible under the new regulations.

But Rother council issued a press statement on Monday to say that the Wilton application had been withdrawn. "The applicant is now applying for a straightforward conversion of the licence and no extension to hours, and since there are no police objections to the existing hours this will automatically be approved under 'Grandfather rights.'"

But the matter will not end there.

Matt Dargan told the Observer: "We have decided to withdraw our application at this time because we only received notification of the complaints on May 27, which we didn't think gave us time to prepare our case.

"We have been advised by our solicitor to withdraw our application for amended hours.

"By no means have we given up - but we do take into consideration the complaints of the residents and we are going to re-think our application to a more 'civilised' hour' which I think will suit everybody."

Mr Dargan says much of the problem with late-night rowdiness in the town centre occurs long after the Wilton is closed under its present licensing hours.

The temporary withdrawal is both good news and bad for objectors.

When notified by Rother of Monday's withdrawal, Denise Viner, secretary of the Wilton Courts Residents' Association which represents flat-dwellers whose homes are above both the Wilton Bar and the nearby Continental Club at Marina, told the Observer that the "Grandfather rights" clause would deny residents the opportunity to put their points directly to the panel.

"We were careful to point out the existing problem, which we feel would be exacerbated by later opening hours."

Told later that the applicants would be coming back before August with a revised application for later hours, she said: "We shall have to wait and see..."