A popular pop-up beer garden near the Green Hotel in Kinross appears safe after a wobble over conforming to licensing legislation from Perth and Kinross Council.
Last week the self-contained Kinross Beer Garden, seating 220 and open only at weekends on the Market Park, was served with a closure notice by the council following a reapplication for its occasional licence being met with seven objections.
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: “There has been lengthy engagement with the operators of the Kinross Beer Garden over the requirements for planning permission, particularly around the need for detailed justification for the departure from planning policy and the process for managing the impact of noise and lighting on neighbours.
"As this is not in place, they were advised in December that an enforcement notice would be served if the marquee remained on site.
“The marquee was removed for a period of time in May, but once it was returned to the site, the enforcement notice was issued. The operators have been provided with details of how to submit an appeal against the notice.”
Green Hotel director Jamie Montgomery, who started the beer garden as a pandemic social distancing initiative in 2020, was caught by surprise that PKC wanted the summer thirst-quencher to cease within weeks.
“A massive bombshell was dropped on us on Wednesday, June 14 when we were served with an Enforcement Order by Perth and Kinross Council Planning Department, demanding that we shut down the beer garden and remove everything (the bar, marquee, toilets, seating) by Thursday, July 20 – in just four weeks time,” he explained at the weekend.
“As it currently stands, the Beer Garden will close for the final time on Saturday, July 15”.
The beer garden operated on an ‘occasional licence, not a premises licence, meaning repeated re-applications with it operational for no more than 28 days a year.
Mr Montgomery told the PA he believed the Licensing Board at PKC “was happy” with the way things were, but planners took the view that without Covid, the drinking spot was “no longer required.”
Defending his business, he said: “We have never been made aware of any issues or problems regarding the operation of the beer garden or any bad behaviour associated with the beer garden since we started almost four years ago.”
Mr Montgomery told his regulars about the closure threat in a Facebook post on Kinross-shire Community Group.
And swiftly he not only had a 2000-plus signature Change.org petition ‘Save Your Beer Garden’ in support, but all three local councillors on board.
He described the rally of support as “extraordinary” and told the PA he had just come through a “manic” week.
“Thank you all so, much,” he said to supporters in a follow-up post earlier this week.
Mr Montgomery explained that the situation had been resolved amicably all round after meetings with PKC licensing officials.
He said: “We have been simply blown away by the unbelievable level of support that has materialised within the local community since we went public on Sunday about the beer garden being forced to close.
“Within three days, over 2250 have signed a petition to stop the closure - which is extraordinary for a relatively small community like ours.
“The wonderful news is that your efforts have really paid off and it looks very much as though the beer garden will continue to open for the next eight weekends as planned (and as permitted under the PKC Occasional Licensing regime).
“Hats off to our local councillors who were admirably quick into action on Sunday and who had a number of meetings with Perth and Kinross Council officers on both Monday and yesterday.
“Those discussions seemingly paid off and a short term (and possibly long term) solution has emerged.
“As the councillors announced last night, we have been advised not to appeal the Enforcement (ie closure) Notice as such, but instead to re-submit our planning application for a premises licence for the Market Park which we first attempted last year before being knocked back.
“As long as the new planning application is submitted prior to July 20 (which it will be), the current Enforcement Notice will be lifted/removed.
“What that means is that the beer garden will continue to operate until the end of August this year as always planned.
“We obviously then have to cross the hurdle of obtaining the planning permission which, if granted, will allow us to open again next year and beyond.
“And just to avoid any confusion, our planning application is simply to obtain a premises licence - there is no intention to have any permanent structures on the Market Park. Anything there will be temporary and movable.
“If successful, this will not only allow the beer garden to operate there but also open up opportunities for other community groups and events to use the Market Park in the future - something that had suddenly looked last week to be under threat.”
Mr Montgomery concluded: “Your incredible rallying in support of the beer garden over the last three days has quite possibly changed everything.”
The Change.org petition site is at https://chng.it/rpxJQkqGYs and currently has 2333 names.
