Two popular pubs have won extensions to their licence to allow outdoor drinking.
The agreement of West Lothian Licensing Board will formalise outdoor drinking at one of the oldest pubs, dating back to the 1760s, as well as one from the development of Livingston as a new town in the 1960s.
An agent for the Livingston Inn in Livingston Village’s Main Street told the Board that the inn was said to have been visited by “a certain Rabbie Burns.”
The pub currently has outdoor tables front and back. The pub applied for licence variation to formalise occasional licences to use a grassed area behind the pub as a beer garden.
Police had no objections, and the licence was granted with the usual conditions including limits on outdoor music and no serving beyond 9pm.
The Tower Bar in Craigshill was built in 1968. It has recently developed as popular community hub supporting the people of Craigshill since the Covid lockdown.
The owners Fiona McLeod and Frank McAlister applied for variations to their existing licence and an extension to beer garden licence with permit to use outside space until 11pm.
An agent said the application was largely “a tidy up” of the existing licence. The Tower has recently undergone renovation and provides a popular restaurant as well as community space.
However, Police Scotland objected to a beer garden licence extending until 11pm fearing noise disturbance for neighbours and the potential for alcohol related disruption. A police licensing sergeant insisted the force: “considered the premises to be well-run and an asset to the community”
Council Safer Neighbourhood Officers had been called in May following complaints about disturbance from a party in the beer garden at the time it was operating on occasional licences.
After going into private session councillors proposed that the variations be allowed on the conditions that standard conditions on outdoor space be applied including the 9pm finish to serving in the beer garden and an additional condition governing the use of amplified music or live performance beyond 7pm. This was accepted by the agent and owners.
By Stuart Sommerville Local Democracy Reporter
