A POPULAR restaurant in a World Heritage Site harbour village has listened to the concerns of locals and decided not to pursue a licence change to serve food and drink outside.

Rebellion, on Quay Road, Charlestown, near St Austell, had originally applied to Cornwall Council to vary its premises licence to expand the interior of the business to include a function room and cocktail lounge, extend its opening time by half an hour and introduce outdoor dining areas between 10am and 9pm.

A Cornwall Council licensing committee met on Wednesday (October 28) to discuss the changes following opposition to the original application by St Austell Bay Parish Council and a Charlestown resident.

The parish council received two representations from residents, while several villagers attended a parish council meeting to voice their concerns over increased noise that could arise from the use of the outdoor areas, with the nearest neighbour living only seven metres away.

Residents had also raised concerns about the likely increase of cars visiting the establishment with no additional parking facilities available.

The Quay Road resident who had written to Cornwall Council’s licensing department, stated that Rebellion’s outside areas “lie in a predominantly residential area and the service of alcohol will seriously impact upon the householders in the area.

“Charlestown already has at least eight outlets for alcohol on sales, together with in the region of five pop-ups within the harbour itself. Thirteen outlets already in existence is far more than the village can sustain in terms of traffic, both human and vehicular, and noise disturbance to both adults and children living in the area.

“The harbour is a world heritage site but both it and its environs are rapidly changing character to become an entertainment centre for the consumption of alcohol. This has already led to police intervention in the course of the summer as the outlets are servicing more people than they can or are prepared to manage. Yet more outdoor outlets will significantly exacerbate what is becoming a growing problem.”

Rebellion removed the outside areas from the licence application following the concerns. Aaron Kay, from the restaurant, said that the business originally wanted to expand at the back of the building to include a function room and cocktail lounge, and also add outdoor seating.

“Following representations, we’ve withdrawn the outdoor areas and the parish council was happy with that. All we’re going for now is the internal extension for rooms at the back and an extra half an hour of licensing time, which means we can sell alcohol until 11pm, which I don’t think is unfair as all the neighbouring premises are licensed until midnight,” he added.

The committee agreed to vary the licence, believing that the changes would not lead to public nuisance.