Families living close to a popular Birmingham pub have described the "living nightmare" of suffering loud music, bright lights and foul language from a beer garden.
Residents whose homes back on to the Old Hare and Hounds in Rednal told a city licensing sub-committee that their quality of life would suffer further if an application by Mitchells and Butlers to serve alcohol until 12.30am was granted.
Spokesman Darren Race said the pub, in Lickey Road, had effectively created an additional room by constructing a large canopy over the garden with the addition of gas heaters.
Mr Race said: "Given the number of people using the beer garden the noise level is extreme and constant.
"Management make no attempt to contain or control this noise even when residents complain.
"We have double glazing but even when the windows are closed we can hear the noise. When the windows are open it is intolerable. We have a 17-month old son and I can't let him in the garden because the language is so puerile."
A petition signed by 71 residents urged the sub-committee to reject the application for longer opening hours.
Mr Race said the pub car park was also a problem with "music booming" from car stereos long after closing time.
Andrew Evans, a barrister representing Mitchells and Butlers, said the pub was part of the company's Ember Inns brand of establishments at the "top end of the market" concentrating on serving food.
The aim of the application was to promote more flexible opening hours which would put paid to large numbers of people leaving at the same time. Customers would "drift away" over a longer period of time, he claimed.
Mr Evans accepted that amplifiers in the garden ought not to be used after 11.20pm. It would also be possible to alter the beer garden lighting to make sure it did not shine on nearby housing.
However, he added: "The police have made no formal representation about disorder.
"This is a well run pub and bad behaviour is not tolerated."
Licensee Scott Fowler admitted that drinkers in the garden often raised their voices and shouted. He had instructed security staff to make sure people did not overstep the mark.
The sub-committee rejected the application to serve alcohol until 12.30am seven nights a week.
Members agreed instead to allow the Old Hare and Hounds to open between 10am and 11pm Mondays to Thursdays, 10am to 12.30am on Fridays and Saturdays and 12pm to 10.30pm on Sundays.
An order restricting drinking-up time to 20 minutes and limiting drinking in the garden until 11.20pm Mondays to Saturdays and 10.50pm on Sundays was also granted.
Gates will have to be placed at the entrance to the car park and locked at closing time. n A campaigner against latenight drinking has been told for the second time that he lives too far away from a pub to complain.
Birmingham's licensing sub-committee ruled that Alan Woodfield did not live in the vicinity of the Solomon Cutler pub on Broad Street and therefore did not qualify under the Licensing Act 2003 as an official objector.
Mr Woodfield, of Berkley Court, Berkley Street, was last week also prevented from objecting to extended hours at the Figure of Eight pub on Broad Street.
