THE owner of a Dorset bar has promised to cut back on his hours and look at ways of reducing noise from the premises.

The pledge comes after neighbours forced a hearing into his premises licence after months  of complaints.

A local councillor says people have been left feeling anxious and I intimidated by some of the behaviour outside the property - although the owners says not all are his customers.

A hearing in Dorchester on Monday heard of a list of complaints about incidents outside Rocky’s bar in Gillingham – including urinating and being sick, fighting, arguing into the early hours, together with loud music from the Queen Street building.

Mr Scott Rock told the hearing he would voluntarily give up his 24-hour licence and shut at 2am at weekends to make life better for residents, although would like to keep longer hours at New Year’s eve and at the time of the town’s carnival.

He also said he would look at changes to the internal layout of the building, if the landlord allowed it, and possibly close the beer garden an hour earlier, at 10pm.

The residents’ complaints had been brought forward by Gillingham councillor, Belinda Ridout, who told the hearing that there were many living nearby who were too frightened to complain.

She said the behaviour of customers, especially at leaving time, had left many feeling unhappy and trapped in their own homes.

The hearing also heard a plea for the police to increase their presence in the area.

Cllr Ridout said she believed that, at times, door staff were not doing their job properly and, instead of moving people quietly on at closing time, were making the problems worse by joining in the banter.

Mr Rock told the hearing that although he and staff did try and encourage people to move on quietly once the bar was closed, usually by 1.30am, not all the street problems were caused by his customers, some by people making their way home from other places.

“The problem we have is that they are members of the public in a public place, which we have no control over,” he said.

Neighbour Richard Barrington, recalled three occasions when he had left his home to help police officers deal with incidents outside the bar. He and other neighbours listed several occasions, mostly since August 2022, including a fight starting outside the bar and continuing down Queen Street towards the High Street; neighbours waking up to find blood, urine and vomit on their premises and a man armed with a hammer outside the bar, although there was no evidence he had been inside.

Cllr Ridout said there had also been many incidents of inconsiderate parking with vehicles left across drives, trapping residents.

She said that the incidents were intimidating although many residents  just put up with it and resigned themselves to cleaning up the mess the following morning.

“From all the evidence I have seen its clear that there is significant failings with the security and door supervision arrangement at Rocky’s Bar which has led to the untenable situation which residents are having to endure, leading to feelings of anxiousness, intimidation and general unhappiness in their own homes and gardens for a significant part of the year,” she said.

Mr Barrington said that some of the noise problems were because of the nature of the building – which was single-skinned, had no vestibule doors to ‘trap’ sound, and no sound attenuation measures. He said that every time a door was opened, at either end to the building, the sound from inside flooded out.

He said his family had considered more lighting and security cameras to deal with problems in the street, but did not want to have to do that, nor did he want to frequently have to wash down his home with buckets of soapy water.

He said earlier meetings with the bar had appeared promising, but nothing ever came of the ideas, which was why residents, ultimately, felt they had no option but to ask for a review of the licence. He said he would prefer weekend closing times to be earlier than 2am.

In evidence to the committee Dorset Council’s environmental health team said they had 15 complaints about Rocky’s bar over 32 months with three residents logging what they had seen and heard, although none demonstrated a statutory noise nuisance and recording equipment installed in a nearby house over two week failed to record any significant noise levels.

A statement from the bar outlined its support for charity events, local musicians and DJs and said safety remains a prime consideration. It said that several customers have been barred for urinating in the street and said that many of the activities complained about outside the bar are likely to be people who have come from elsewhere in the town.

Said Mr Rock: “We will continue to enforce all our current policies and procedures we have in place and would welcome any guidance/ alternative solutions from the police, neighbours, licensing and anyone else concerned or qualified to give advice.”

The decision of the licencing is expected by the end of this week.