The owner of a gin distillery has offered to limit the number of tours and tastings after neighbours objected over fears about the prospect of noise.
Inger Smith, 52, co-owner of Madame Jennifer Distillery, made the offer at a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel hearing today (Friday 20 March).
Immediate neighbours raised concerns about noise from visitors as the panel considered an application to extend the opening hours until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays and until 9.30pm on Sundays.
The distillery operates from a unit in Poets Corner House, in Montgomery Street, Hove, and can only sell or offer tastings of its own products. But Ms Smith and her partner, Ian Curtis, 51, would like to offer tastings from other independent Sussex distillers.
At the licensing panel hearing, neighbour Fynn Hudson-Prentice said that he usually went to bed early because of his job as a professional cricketer for Sussex.
Mr Hudson-Prentice said that his main concern was the extra noise of people coming to and from the building and potentially more traffic in the area.
He said: “Our bedroom backs on to where the distillery is which means our evenings would be more disrupted with a lot of noise around.
“Having more people around with more alcohol involved … people don’t abide by being quiet when leaving the premises.”
Another neighbour, Julian Burrows, said that the shutters made a noise – and two houses were being built on a site next to Poets Corner House which would prevent the use of the car park.
Mr Burrows said: “Is the distillery then going to use the parking area as an outside drinking area?
“With the hours mentioned, 9.30pm and 10pm, it’s activity where alcohol is involved and some people don’t have a switch off.”
Ms Smith said that any drinking would take place inside the premises which was one of seven businesses operating in the building – and the car park was not linked with her business.
During tours and tasting sessions, which would be limited to 10 people with pre-booked tickets, customers would drink approximately 50 millilitres of gin or two units of alcohol.
She said that Madame Jennifer Distillery opened in 2017 and had offered tours for the past six years.
Ms Smith said: “The changes to the times are just to make things a bit easier because we have sales both on and off the premises.
“People can pop in and buy a bottle of gin if they let us know they’re coming in and usually we offer tours on Friday and Saturdays.
“There is no plan to offer a bar-style premises. It would all be pre-booked via our website.”
She hoped to offer tastings from other independent producers to encourage people who have been on tours to come back again.
The licensing panel was made up of three councillors – Ivan Lyons, Paul Nann and Sam Parrott. They retired to make their decision which should be made public within five working days.