A NEW pub and restaurant is set to open in Crowthorne in summer 2021.
Hall and Woodhouse Ltd, which will run the site and which operates 175 pubs across the UK, has asked the council for permission to sell booze until past midnight.
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The new eatery comes as part of approved plans to build 1,000 homes at the site of the former Transport Research Laboratory site on Old Wokingham Road.
Councillors will decide whether to allow bosses at the brewery to sell alcohol from 7am to midnight from Monday to Sunday.
Managers are also asking to sell late-night refreshments from 11pm until 12.30am Monday to Sunday.
Slightly later hours are proposed for New Year’s Eve.
The pub will be a “food-led establishment” where breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served.
The applicant is aiming to purchase the site “later in 2020” but then would need to fit out the premises, meaning opening is not likely until summer 2021.
One resident is unhappy about the plans, however.
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They told Bracknell Forest Council (BFC): “The pub is extremely close to my property and I am concerned about noise and disturbance at closure.
“If the pub closes at midnight it will be into the early hours before people leave the area who are waiting for taxis, lifts.
“In addition, l [h]ave no doubt me and my children will hear everything from the pub garden which will be 300 meters away! We don’t want that till midnight thank you.”
Despite this, an agent for the applicants wrote: “The hours sought are significantly shorter than those that have been granted to many of the premises across the company’s estate.”
The same resident asked why this application was being considered amidst the ongoing coronavirus crisis, arguing the pandemic meant few residents had the opportunity to comment on the plans when they were submitted in April.
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The agent disputed this suggestion, and responded: “It would have been impractical to delay the application until the current crisis had come to an end as contractual arrangements for what is a very substantial investment for Hall and Woodhouse could not proceed until licensing and planning matters were resolved.
BFC councillors will decide on the application at a meeting on Monday, June 1.
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