Extended opening hours for Slug and Lettuce pub in Chichester

A BUSY Chichester city centre bar and restaurant has won approval for extended opening hours on Fridays and Saturdays.

One objector warned the change could set a precedent for other similar venues in the area.

The Slug and Lettuce, at Southgate, can now open to the public from 8am to 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, compared with 8am to 1am at present.

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Hours when alcohol can be sold will be extended to 10am to 1.30am on the two days, compared with the present 10am to 12.30am.

The decision by the district council’s licensing and gambling acts sub-committee followed an announcement at the meeting by the bar’s owners and operators that they were proposing extra conditions on their premises to allay the concerns of some local residents.

There was no police objection to the proposals, and only two letters of objection from residents.

The additional conditions include:

All doors and windows opening directly to the outside to be closed while the premises are in use for ‘regulated entertainment’, excluding films, and except for access and egress.

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‘Appropriate instructions’ and training for staff to encourage customers to leave quietly and not loiter in the area.

No live music after midnight on any day.

Sub-committee chairman Mick Shone said members had taken into account the lengthy mediation which had taken place in this case, and the extra conditions agreed by the applicants.

Objectors complained about late-night noise and anti-social behaviour created by users of several licensed premises in the area, within a few hundred yards of each other.

One said if this application was successful, it would be seen as a precedent for similar establishments in and around South Street.

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Kelly Rainey, general manager of the Slug and Lettuce for the past nine years, said the changes would allow more gradual dispersal of customers.

“I live in Chichester and the last thing I would want to do is make anyone unhappy,” she told the sub-committee.

Solicitor Clare Eames, representing the applicants, said: “There is fairly robust protection for residents with the existing conditions and the new ones proposed.