Hoylake residents lose wine bar battle

Oct 1 2008 by Sue McCann, Heswall News

A BID by irate residents to ban more bars from setting up in Hoylake has been quashed by councillors.

Close to 200 people signed a petition urging Wirral Council’s licensing committee to prevent any more wine bars or clubs opening in the town.

Councillors heard that the area had become flooded with bars in the wake of the Open golf in 2006, drawing in revellers from miles around.

Local people who had campaigned for a moratorium claim the character of the area has been “adversely affected”.

Hoylake Conservative councillor John Hale said Hoylake had been turned into a “living hell”.

And Jackie Hall, a former Conservative councillor who lives in Cable Road, said vomit and faeces were routinely left in front gardens.

Drunks were frequently found having sex in alleyways and drugs were bought and sold outside houses, she claimed.

A letter to the council from Ch Supt Jon Ward, Wirral area commander, said: “The residents of Hoylake suggest high levels of public nuisance, most of which is not reported and therefore this cannot be supported or discounted by police figures.

“Hoylake has the second lowest violence and anti-social behaviour figures behind the Heswall area.”

Now campaigners will have to raise petitions for each individual application to set up a new bar in the town.