Since opening its doors in October 2016 Castle Street Townhouse has been one of the stand out sites on a revitalised Castle Street. The venue transforms throughout the day to reflect people’s changing faces and personalities to allow them to truly show their three sides as they wake, work and play.
The Directors of Castle Street Townhouse would like to comment and give perspective on this shock announcement by Liverpool City Council Licensing, as the venue has its pavement cafe licence ( PL106 ) revoked, starting from this bank holiday weekend. There were two major factors, with both being addressed by the venue.
Castle Street Townhouse has operated a pavement cafe service since 2020 under the BID Without Walls scheme, which was brought in during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to assist the hospitality sector, due to conditions of trade.
A legitimate application was then made for a Pavement Cafe Licence under the Business and Planning Act (2020) when the Without Walls scheme was terminated.This application included the curtilage of the former Bank of England, which is next door to the Castle Street Townhouse. A Pavement Cafe Licence (PL) was granted, but the area outside of the former bank was excluded from the plan on the basis that there was no permission from the new owner of the bank to use the curtilage.
Permission had been given from the owners of the Bank of England, JSM Group, who have not started work on the bank due to this being in the planning stage. Written evidence of their permission to use their outdoor space was provided on request by the Premises Licence Holder of Castle Street Townhouse.This should have meant that the Pavement Licence was amended or that there was an invitation to submit a fresh application, neither happened!
Secondly under the Without Walls scheme large parasols, for shade, that wouldn’t be uprooted with high winds, and planters were used with the Pavement Licence to demarcate the Pavement Cafe area. The premises were informed that the furniture outside of the former bank and also the site itself now needed to be removed completely on closing time each night from the pavement. Some of the items such as planters were extremely large and the venue asked for additional time to organise for more storage as inside the site was not adequate. The end of August was agreed.
When LCC Licensing served the Revocation Notice this week it was stated that it had been served due to the use of the area in front of the former Bank of England, the same area that the current freeholder had given permission to use the curtilage of to Castle Street Townhouse !
Director of Castle Street Townhouse Bakir said:” This decision comes a few days before the biggest weekend of the year for our business. The city will be packed for the last bank holiday of the Summer. We were told we had until the end of August to rectify the storage issue and now this news just days before the weekend! We will of course be appealing this decision. I would also like to firstly apologise to our loyal customers for this disruption to our outdoor trade and would like to clarify again that it is business as usual for us, indoors.
Also what is very disturbing on our part is the fact that Liverpool City Council Licensing officers discussed the revocation with another business on Castle Street, prior to this revocation. This is clearly a breach of the GDPR. We will be looking to take this further and also have asked Liverpool City Council for all evidence and documents relating to this matter. These items have still not been made available to us.
Lastly we would like to add that the last 3 years have been by far the hardest on record for the hospitality sector. Everybody knows how hard the pandemic hit the industry. We then entered a cost of living crisis and it has been a very tough time with over 5000 restaurants in the UK closing over the last year due to factors such as energy bills. We would like to remind the council of these factors at such a volatile time for our industry.”
Castle Street Townhouse – 25-27 Castle St, Liverpool L2 4TA