New craft brewery 'not a pub', meeting hears as neighbours raise noise worries

A new craft brewery offering beer and hot food is ‘not a pub’, its owner has said, amid neighbours’ worries about noise from late-night revellers.

Feisty Beer Co Ltd has applied to Buckinghamshire Council for permission to open at The Orangery, a disused office building in Bourne End near to the village railway station.

Its application saw around 50 objections from nearby residents, many of whom feared worsening noise from the site which backs onto their gardens.

The Orangery site (credit: Google). 

At a council licensing sub-committee meeting last week, Feisty Beer owner Judson Williams said the site was ‘not a pub’ and his company would instead be opening a ‘community space’.

“I want to provide something for the community,” he said. “We have no interest in upsetting any of our neighbours.

“This is absolutely about providing a community space where we can hopefully bring back a bit of the traditional heritage of the Wooburn Green Bourne End area.”

Mr Williams’ family ran the Royal Stag Brewery in Wooburn Green, which began business in 1833 and was later purchased by Marlow Brewery and then Dutch beer company Heineken.

“We think the area will benefit from this [The Orangery] being restored back to the building that should have been,” Mr Williams said.

“Rather than what it was starting to become, with leaks in the roof and the overgrown gardens and car parks and faulty security gates.”

The Orangery site is located off Station Road, between residential gardens and train tracks on the Marlow branch line.

Under Feisty Beer’s plans, the building would be repurposed to host a craft beer shop area, a seated restaurant area with a kitchen, and a canning area.

The licence application said its opening hours would be from 11.30am till 9.30pm on Monday, Thursday and Sunday; and from 11.30am till 10.30pm on Friday and Saturday.

“This is not a bar,” Mr Williams said. “And even if we wanted to be a bar, we couldn’t be.

“We produce beer, that’s what our passion is.

“If we wanted to be a pub, we would’ve have bought a pub. It’s that simple.

“This just ticks all of our requirements at present.”

However, also at the meeting, were some of the licence objectors.

Questions were raised by resident Shirley Bovonsombat over whether a specific licence condition could be applied to prevent live music at the site.

Mr Williams said his company had no plans to host live music.

Buckinghamshire Council environmental protection officer Stuart Goodbun said the applicant had created a noise management plan to address the noise worries.

Mr Goodbun said: “I appreciate the level of concern from the local residents, in terms of their objections as well, and take this into due consideration in my correspondence with the applicant.”

He added: “Mr Williams has produced a noise management plan… which I do feel does cover and address the principal issues in terms of prevention of public nuisance.”

The sub-licensing committee is set to announce its decision in the coming weeks.