Landlord Fined £4.5k After Putting Up Sarcastic Sign About Neighbours' Noise Complaints

A pub owner has been ordered to pay £4,500 after erecting a sarcastic sign in his beer garden in response to neighbours' noice complaints.

His sign asked customers to 'whisper' as there were neighbours who 'forget they live next door to a pub and not a library.'

Michael Campbell, 27, got in a row with locals last summer after accusing them of whinging about noise at the Hare and Hounds pub in Braintree, Essex.

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But a magistrates court has now ordered Michael to pay £4,500 after admitting ten breaches of a council order to reduce noise in the beer garden.

During lockdown last year the pub converted its large garden to accommodate more customers.

The conversion increased the Hare and Hounds's capacity from just 46 heads indoors to 300 both inside and out.

That was fair play to Michael whose business would have suffered during the pandemic after taking over the joint in 2018.

The pub owner said he accepted there were breaches in the opinion of others.

"I’m just glad we could get this over and done with. Now we can just crack on," he said.

“We accepted there were breaches, in the opinion of other people, and they fined us £250 for each breach."

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Lucky for Michael, he has new neighbours.

“The new people are absolutely lovely, they’re wonderful," he said. "We’re just a small business trying to survive."

Michael's company that owns and runs the Hare and Hounds, MWC Pubs, was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £2,000 at Ipswich Magistrates' Court last Friday (7 Jan).

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A spokesman for Braintree Council said: “Following a number of noise complaints and visits from the council who witness the breaches, a noise abatement notice was issued to the premises which is still in force.

“We take noise nuisance seriously and while we always act on complaints and try to find ways to resolve the problem to everyone’s satisfaction, in this case it was not possible.

“The business failed to comply with the notice which resulted in 10 breaches taking place.”