Hotel Delany's push for 2am closure has been recommended for approval reliant on conditions and a reduction in later trading days, but residents remain firmly against the proposal.
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Newcastle councillors will vote on the matter on Tuesday after deferring their decision in August for further discussion to see if issues raised could be addressed by additional conditions.
Council staff had recommending approving the Darby Street pub's application to extend its closing time from midnight until 2am.
The application has since been scaled back from a 2am closing time Monday to Saturday and midnight on Sunday to extended trade from Wednesday to Saturday only.
But a Cooks Hill community representative says those changes don't do anything to alleviate resident concerns about noise, anti-social behaviour, traffic and impact on the surrounding residential area.
"They're the quiet nights anyway," Cooks Hill Community Group spokesperson Glenn Burgess said. "It's a trivial change.
"The busier nights will still be 2am."
The application proposes a staged shutdown of the venue, with the top floor and smoking area to close at midnight and capacity reduced from 990 to 300, the public/main bar to shut at 1am with capacity to 120 and all patrons out of the remaining areas by 2.15am.
Patrons will be asked to leave and go elsewhere or line up again if there are too many people in the venue 15 minutes before the 12am and 1am capacities come into effect. As a condition of consent, the pub will be required to keep data on patron numbers, incidents and complaints, have CCTV in specific locations and consent would be granted on a 12-month trial basis.
But Mr Burgess said residents remained concerned with people being made to leave into the surrounding area during the staged shutdown and as late as 2am.
He said the CCTV may record incidents happening, but wouldn't necessarily prevent them and there was also unease about the pub being allowed to collect and provide the data to council themselves.
"It's not really at arms length from them," Mr Burgess said.
Mr Burgess said the report to councillors showed the plan did not fit in with the city's after dark strategy, which refers to the night-time economy as operating between 9pm and 1am, and until 2am in "low impact venues" - described as small bars and pop-up bars.
The venue sought a similar trading extension in 2017 but was knocked back after opposition from neighbours.
Marvan Hotels, which operates the pub, was contacted for comment.
Sage Swinton
Sage Swinton is a news reporter who was born and bred in the Hunter. She has been with the Newcastle Herald since June 2020, and covers Newcastle council as well as other general news.
Sage Swinton is a news reporter who was born and bred in the Hunter. She has been with the Newcastle Herald since June 2020, and covers Newcastle council as well as other general news.
