A city centre venue is confident it will prevail after a review of its premises licence was launched.
Liverpool Council ’s licensing and gambling sub-committee is looking into the operating terms at Oh Me Oh My at West Africa House, Water Street after complaints were raised about noise from the venue. A hearing is to be held next month.
According to documents made available by the local authority, the licence review is related to the licensing objectives of the prevention of public nuisance. The application for it to be reviewed was made by city centre councillor Nick Small.
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In a letter to residents, seen by the ECHO, Cllr Small said: “I have received complaints from residents living at West Africa House over the past few months about noise from events at Oh Me Oh My disturbing them. I have contacted Environmental Health about this to try to resolve these issues, but the residents who initially contacted me tell me the issues have continued.”
Cllr Small has suggested that amendments be made to the venue’s licence, including the adoption of a noise limiter and that “no noise generated on the premises, or by its associated plant or equipment, shall emanate from the premises nor vibration be transmitted through the structure of the premises which gives rise to a nuisance.”
In the letter, Labour councillor Small added: “I spoke to and exchanged emails with the premises licence holder on Tuesday and offered to hold off lodging the review so that we could all meet and see if the premises would agree to these conditions voluntarily, but we could not reach agreement. Residents affected by noise can make a representation on the review to support what I’m calling for.”
It is expected that a hearing regarding Oh Me Oh My will be held at Liverpool Town Hall next month. Natalie Haywood, managing director at the Leaf group of companies that manages Oh Me Oh My, said she was confident they would be successful.
She said: “We’ve had lots of testing done here before and not been able to find any noise issues. The claims haven’t been substantiated and we’re pretty confident we’ll be successful.
“We’ve been here before and we work closely with environmental health.” Currently Oh Me Oh My has a licence to open from 7am to 2am and sell alcohol from 11am to 2am.
The venue’s outside area ceases operating at 11pm with recorded music allowed from 8am and live music at 11am.
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