A landlord has called time on a busy town centre pub after receiving notice from the council of their intent to pursue legal proceedings due to a number of noise complaints from residents living in nearby flats.

Andy Macdonald, who runs Ships and Giggles in both Burnley and Preston, was served the notice from Preston City Council earlier this week, in relation to another pub he runs, The Wellington Inn, in Glovers Court, right in the heart of Preston.

The pub is surrounded by other bars and restaurants, but has received numerous noise complaints since May, many during the Euro 2020 tournament, with the council making several visits to the establishment to assess the issues.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Macdonald said the complaints have been made mostly by people who have recently moved in to a new luxury accommodation block opposite the pub, which was once a nightclub, and has been left flabbergasted at why such people would choose to move into a city centre apartment opposite a lively bar if they were going to complain about the noise.

Former legendary nightclub transformed into 24 luxury apartments in £5m development

In the letter, which outlined action which could be taken against Mr MacDonald by the council to prevent noise nuisance, the council state: "I refer to the enclosed statutory notice requiring you to reduce and maintain the level of amplified music to a level that does not cause a nuisance by way of noise to occupiers of adjacent property.

"Notwithstanding the refurbished accommodation directly opposite your public house, I also have on file two separate dwellings that are also suffering entertainment noise nuisance.

"Should this department receive further complaints...then an application for a warrant may be made to the Magistrates' Court.

"The granting of such a warrant will authorise the council to enter your property, by force if required, and remove all music amplification equipment.

"The department then may refer the matter to the council's legal department to prosecute you for failure to comply with this notice."

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Macdonald said: "After several complaints of noise from the new apartment build opposite the The Wellington Inn, we have decided the best option is to call it a day.

"My team had several meetings with the council and when they put the prohibition notice on the table after constant noise complaints saying that they will serve it if it continues...ell we thought it best we call it a day first.

"The pub has served us well and kept us nice and busy during crazy times, but the pressure it was putting on myself and my team simply sucked all the motivation and excitement related to this great pub right out of us.

Lancashire Telegraph: The Wellington on the right, the new apartments on the leftThe Wellington on the right, the new apartments on the left

"I’d like to say that the events we put on (which included the football) were great, and they always finished at 11pm, and they were only on the odd Saturday, but for some crazy mad reason, people moving into a city centre lush apartment opposite a lively bar ain’t no good for them, so we lost this battle (ironically my team and I probably had more sleepless nights than they did over it).

"Massive thank you to the team involved. Hold your head up high - you guys were awesome.

"But unfortunately this story was never going to end well.

"Best of luck to the next person taking it on. Keep it quiet. Literally."

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Macdonald, who only took on the job as landlord last year, said he is devastated at more-or-less being forced to call time on his tenure at The Wellington, as he put a lot of time and effort into maximising the space on offer at the pub, which has a huge outdoor beer garden.

He continued: "The license on the bar is only until 12.30am so the first thing I wanted to do was apply for a late license.

"We were working closely with the council and police to get this license but they were constantly receiving noise complaints from the apartments beside us and I know the industry well enough to know that the license would not have been granted anytime soon.

"From the get go I never had an event go past 11pm, and they were always on a Saturday evening...but this simply wasn’t good enough.

Lancashire Telegraph: The apartments which are directly opposite the pubThe apartments which are directly opposite the pub

"The council met with my team on several occasions and we tried to put measures in place - in fact one time we had a council member treat his wife to one of our events and all was great - but the complaints continued to come in.

"We did all we could but it wasn’t good enough.

"The complaints seemed to be never ending.

"We just tired and lost all energy, motivation and focus.

"The pub unfortunately is now surrounded by apartments and big brand new luxury built apartments. I knew we didn’t stand a chance.

"I took the bar on because it had huge outdoor space and I had to utilise it.

"We put tremendous time and effort into creating a decent beer garden.

"I knew that the only way I could make this pub work was by utilising the outdoor space.

"Inside is small and Intimate, and my team served some great food. But the food alone wasn’t sustainable for a bar.

"I tried, and what I wanted I couldn’t get."

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Macdonald said the stress of having to deal with so many noise complaints caused anxiety for him and his management team, to the point where he knew the end was inevitable.

He added: "When I opened the bar we were packed. It was amazing. But as the complaints started to come in, we started to do fewer and fewer events, and the ones we tried to put on would be complained about.

"In fact it got that bad that we had complaints at 9pm for customers singing outside the bar and that we must have been doing kareoke…I’ve never ever done kareoke.

"We had complaints about football chanting when England were playing in the Euros…we even had the apartments put complaints in about our canopies…and to this day I don’t understand it.

"All the love for the place was sucked out of me and my management months ago.

"I’m just extremely disappointed in the new residents. You’ve been there not even a year...the pub has been there far, far longer."

Mr Macdonald says he bears no grudges against the council, whom he has maintained a good relationship with, but hopes whoever takes the licence on next can bring a different vision to The Wellington, one which doesn't involve a beer garden.