Nightmare at dream home, Teesdale Mercury

Nightmare at dream home

Jul 24, 2002

A RETIRED couple's dream home has been turned into a living nightmare



because of late-night noise and foul language from customers at Folly's in the Market Place at Barnard Castle, Teesdale licensing committee heard on Monday.

Greta and Bob Griffiths, from Sayers Yard next door, said that on Friday and Saturday nights from 11pm until well after 2am they can't get to sleep because people are spilling out into the beer garden and because of the "boom, boom" of loud music coming through their wall. "I was in the

forces in tanks," Mr Griffiths told the committee. "I could sleep in a tank but I cannot sleep with this damn noise. It's a disgrace. They're shouting and it's filthy dirty language. It's frightening and it¹s a nuisance. I can't say any more than that." He said a sharpened screwdriver had also been thrown over the wall.

Mrs Griffiths' brother, Stan Chatt, who lives next door to them, had also written to the committee that he couldn't sleep.

Councillors did renew the annual public entertainment licence, for applicant Mrs J Thompson, but attached a string of conditions after chairman, John Salter, said they had listened carefully to the objections.

The beer garden must be closed after 11pm, the fire alarms system tested weekly, the automatic noise control levels must be re-checked and agreed with Teesdale Council's head of environmental health and any live music must adhere to the automatic noise control level system. The committee is also asking its officers to monitor regularly to ensure that the licence conditions are adhered to.

The committee also heard that external doors to the beer garden had been left open as a route to the toilets, and all the windows opened because of the hot weather, which had exacerbated the problem. Teesdale Council's Howard Stainthorpe had visited the premises in June and the sound level had been agreed as acceptable with the objectors when these were closed. Peter Fayle, the council's building control manager, had spoken to the icensee earlier this month who had assured him that doors to the beer garden would be kept closed.

Neither Mrs Thompson nor her representative attended the hearing, but she had written on May 22 stating: "I am quite willing to be inspected by the environmental health and we do stick to the strict guidelines set by the department."

Mr Griffiths told the Mercury: "It's not that we are against people being in business. We were in business ourselves when we ran the fish shop on the Bank. But we cannot sleep because of the noise. We bought this

cottage more than 20 years ago when it was derelict and now we have restored it, we call it our Shangri La."

He also said that his brother-in-law had, in the past, suffered so much noise from a restaurant extractor fan that he had had to put blankets up to deaden the sound, but this had now been solved.

They hoped the licence conditions at Folly¹s would reduce the noise but were worried what would happen should the licensee move on.