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Is Nimby-ism killing Britain’s pubs?

09 December 2024 By Louis Thomas

While changing consumer habits and rising bills have created difficulties for pubs across the UK, complaints from local residents are also hurting the sector, as one landlord tells Louis Thomas.

The Rising Sun in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire was built alongside the Grand Union Canal in the latter half of the 19th century. But, despite being a fixture of the area for well over a century, its future has been potentially jeopardised by a new arrival to the neighbourhood.

The Rising Sun’s landlord, Mark Granger, shared his account of what the pub is going through.

“The threats to pubs generally are significant, especially to independent freehold pubs,” he said. “One of the most significant threats that gets very little attention is the threat from NIMBYs. In my case a property very close to my own was sold in 2021, although the new neighbours had to have known that they had a pub literally trading at the bottom of their garden.”

‘NIMBYs’ (standing for ‘Not In My Backyard’), are local residents who object to things such as new housing developments or the activities of local businesses, usually on the grounds that they deem them to be disruptive.

According to Granger, the new neighbours, who have not been named, have lodged numerous complaints over the last three years to Dacorum Borough Council, the authority covering Berkhamsted, Tring, Hemel Hempstead, and nearby villages.

“To investigate the complaints we have been visited about 50 times by the police and many decibel readings have been uploaded to the council by the neighbour,” he revealed. “In spite of this extensive investigation, over three years, no evidence has been found to support the allegations or provide proof of any wrongdoing by The Rising Sun.”

However, Granger shared that the council has “repeatedly” attempted to make the pub accept “severe restrictions”, such as reducing its outside space to two small seating areas.

“We are a very seasonal pub and rely heavily on the profits from our summer trade to keep paying the bills through the winter, and these restrictions would have made the business unviable,” he said.

“The council says that it has a statutory obligation to investigate every noise complaint that they receive but to what end? They have investigated every complaint from my neighbour for years, with no corroborating evidence or supporting complaints from other neighbours being reported,” said Granger. “Dacorum says that they will continue to investigate every noise complaint received against my pub. At what point will they accept that my pub is not the problem and stop wasting taxpayers’ money, time and resources on complaints from the same property?”

The situation has forced The Rising Sun to invest what Granger described as more than a “year’s worth of profits” in to taking legal action, something he said had taken a “huge toll” on the business, especially given it is now in the run up to Christmas, a time when pubs are usually focused on “the increasing demand of the festive season to try to maximise profits”.

“This illustrates how complaints from a single property and the Council’s actions have caused havoc with our business. That is how businesses like ours are being threatened by NIMBYs: death by a thousand emails, and a large dose of council bureaucracy!”

Council concerns

db reached out to Dacorum for comment on the issue and was told that the council has a “statutory obligation to investigate every noise complaint”, and claimed that between June 2023 and September 2024 it received three complaints relating to The Rising Sun.

“No formal enforcement action has been taken and we have provided advice and guidance to all parties,” the statement continued. “We currently have no open investigations in relation to this premises, however, should further complaints be received these will be investigated as required by law.”

Granger slammed the council’s response, accusing it of “high-handed and completely unprofessional” behaviour.

“It could not take any formal action against the Rising Sun because no evidence of wrongdoing has been found. However, rather than providing advice and guidance, it has withheld information concerning the complaint, made deliberately misleading statements, ie: three complaints have been received, neglecting to say they are all from the same source,” he said.

Fundraiser

In order to cover the legal fees, The Rising Sun has launched a fundraiser on Crowdfunder – at the time of writing it has reached almost £14,000 out of a £40,000 target with 72 days remaining.

“We would ask people to donate to support our campaign because it really matters,” argued Granger. “The money raised will help support the only original Victorian ale house left on the Grand Union Canal and stop Dacorum’s plan to destroy our historic public house. We are determined to take the fight to the Dacorum and to try to win a victory for every pub dealing with neighbours complaints and council officials hiding behind their statutory obligations.”

Asked if he would like to see the laws surrounding how complaints from local residents are dealt with, Granger cited the high court judgement of Mr Justice Forbes in the case of St Albans City Council versus Patel, from 23 October 2008, a case which, according to the documents on the matter, concerned “a noise nuisance caused by licensed premises in St Albans”.

“This states that new neighbours buying next to a pub are doing so in the full knowledge that the pub is trading and that they should realise that they will experience disturbances and that they should not be able to then complain or effect how the pub trades,” said Granger. “It further continues to state that pubs go in and out of fashion and that just because the business was quiet when the house was purchased is not a guarantee that the pub would always be quiet and that the new neighbour should have anticipated that this could happen. This ruling should have protected us from being victimised by the neighbour and Dacorum.”

“Remember,” added Granger, “if they [NIMBYs] had their way, there would be nothing for you here!”

One new publican who has made it almost a crusade to take on NIMBYism is none other than Jeremy Clarkson, who has feuded with West Oxfordshire District Council over how the concerns of local residents have blocked his own business plans.

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