‘Terrorised in our own home’

Residents of Church Walk have spoken out against the late opening hours of local pubs, bars and clubs and the distress caused by revellers spilling out onto the street on their way home.

The row comes after two local pubs were granted licences to stay open until the early hours - with the Cornerhouse open until 4am and Disraeli’s now open until 5am.

One resident even has recent CCTV footage of two revellers having public sex on a driveway.

The next morning, a six-year-old child found the used condom.

The Guardian set up a meeting between residents, police and Bassetlaw Council leader Simon Greaves so that local households could air their views.

One resident said: “I moved in eight years ago and they didn’t have these late licences back then, but now the street has become a rat run for drunk pedestrians.

As well as the noise, the fighting and the swearing, people have been finding faecal matter and soiled underwear in their gardens.”

“My child can’t sleep and the street has become un-liveable in the early hours. We’re being terrorised in our own homes. It’s hell for everyone.”

Another resident added: “The noise has grown so excessive that weekends have become horrendous in the early hours - not to mention people urinating and vomiting in our gardens and all of the damage that they’re doing.”

“I can’t think of another town or city with clubs open so late while so close to a residential area - we need to make more effort to report this behaviour so that this can be stopped.”

Council leader Simon Greaves told the residents that he was staunchly against such late opening hours.

“I think that 24 hour licensing is wrong,” he said. “The authority has only been able to act under the framework imposed by central government and localism will mean a move towards us being able to determine how we operate in the area and I want to see more residents involved in that.”

“The regime isn’t working. NHS and police resources are being poured into chaperoning drunkards. You don’t pay council tax to have your lives ruined in the evening by marauding drunks. ”

“I’ll immediately be looking into how this is monitored. We’ll sort this out.”

PC Christian Hurley told the meeting: “We’d gladly see the opening hours of pubs reduce, as we could deploy our resources more effectively.”

“If there are enough complaints and reports of incidents, then we can use this as evidence against the clubs when objecting to their licensing extensions. Please call the 101 number to report these incidents.”

We spoke to Disraeli’s owner Trevor Buck, who responded: “I applied for the 5am licence due to the demand of the people. It was granted by the council without any objections from the police or environmental health.”

“We also have our own taxi centre on site which takes people away. I’ve been down Church Walk to patrol, monitor and record it myself and there is no noise or anti-social behaviour. Anyone who says there are problems is just being malicious and doesn’t want us open late.”

Owner of the Cornerhouse Mark Churchill said: “The problem is that 10 years ago there was nothing around this end of town. Church Walk leads to the Canch and it’s a main route into town for many people, so I’m looking into all sorts of things to try and help.”

He continued: “Environmental health have no problems with what we do - all issues are purely to do with the location.

I’d like to get on to the Night-time Economy Committee to look into what’s best for this part of the town. All I do is respond to what the customer wants. “

“I’m considering pulling out of the late licence as I’m exploring what I can do for local residents.”

He added: “What the residents haven’t realised is that they’ve let these licences go ahead by not actively opposing them.”