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Noise complaints put pub in a spin

Eve Dugdale
5/ 7/2006

A HADFIELD licensee has defended his pub after facing accusations of being a noisy neighbour.

Darren Pusey says he has "tried his best" to co-operate with neighbours and make a go of the Spinners Arms, which is off Hadfield Road.

An anonymous letter was distributed around the town asking residents to report incidents of 'unreasonable behaviour' to the Police and High Peak Borough Council.

Mr Pusey said: "We've turned the pub around and made it into a nice pub.

"What noise we do have is minimal. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday we're licensed to serve until 1am but we turn the music down, and when people leave the pub we remind them there are people living nearby and that they should be respectful," he said.

"These complaints and the letter going round have made my wife ill, to the point now where she wants to leave.

"We put CCTV in the pub in case any trouble does happen. We're trying our best."

Some neighbours approached by the Advertiser said they had no problem with the pub.

But Simon Heppolette, who lives across the road from it, said he had had to have double-glazed windows fitted because of the noise.

He said: "With any pub you're going to get a bit of noise but when we first moved here there was a couple running it who'd been there for more than 10 years. It was a real kind of community pub.

"If we did ever have any complaints we could tell the landlord and he was very polite and respectful.

"There is karaoke blaring out until all hours and people rolling about in the street, sitting on cars.

"I've had to move my young daughter's bedroom to the back of the house because she couldn't sleep and when you tell the landlord he acts like he doesn't care. Our quality of life now is utterly shocking."

Inspector Stuart Thompson confirmed police had been called out to the pub following noise complaints but said they were working with its staff to deal with any problems.

High Peak Borough Council confirmed a number of people had made complaints about the pub.