A Helston pub has been given permission to change its opening hours outside.

Cornwall Council's Licensing Act sub-committee considered an application from Cooke Pubs Ltd, the company that owns the Red Lion in Church Street.

Owner Martin Cooke had asked for a variation of its premises licence in order to keep using its beer garden until 11pm each day, rather than the existing 10pm stated in the licence granted back in July.

Mr Cook was unable to attend the meeting but emailed to say that the application was mainly due to a few complaints from residents of Church Street about noise and people congregating outside the front of the pub.

They said they wanted to change the application so that the entire garden was shut, including the smoking area, at 11pm.

Mr Cooke said there had been no complaints or problems regarding noise from the garden and it seemed more sensible to have everyone out the back of the pub.

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He went on to write that with the current situation regarding Covid-19 more customers were wanting to sit outside and this was encouraged as late as possible, with numbers of customers halved once the garden was shut.

Signs had been put up around the pub regarding keeping noise levels to a minimum, especially when leaving and being outside.

Mr Cooke said other pubs in the town had been allowed to have their outside areas open until 11pm and the Red Lion had asked the same. Although the pub had been shutting at 10pm in line with Covid guidelines, if this should change it would be a "huge help" to have the outdoor area open for an extra hour.

He said the pub wanted to do everything in its power to keep local residents happy and they were welcome to come and speak to the team at any point should they have concerns.

Councillors noted that there had been some concerns received about noise possible noise, but there were none from any of the neighbouring properties or Environmental Protection.

They felt that, on balance, there was insufficient evidence that there would be public nuisance caused by one extra hour in the outside area and agreed to vary the licence.