A local resident said the bass was like an earthquake
Cosies bar in St Pauls(Image: Alex Seabrook)
A Bristol bar has faced off a threat to its premises licence after a neighbour complained about earthquake-like bass. Cosies, on Portland Square in St Pauls, could have had its licence revoked by councillors after a disgruntled resident said music was played too late and too loud.
Sophie Cooper lives nearby and urged Bristol City Council to review the venue’s licence, calling for soundproofing and reduced opening hours. But she was labelled a “frequent complainant” by a lawyer representing Cosies, having also applied for a review for Lakota, a nearby nightclub.
As she was the only neighbour asking for a review, councillors on a licensing sub-committee said the noise was not a public nuisance. Licensing law means they can take action if they believe a venue is not “preventing public nuisance”, such as playing music too loudly.
During the licensing hearing, on Thursday, May 8, Ms Cooper said: “The events are underground with speakers installed onto the ceiling. Their ceiling is the same level as my ground, hence the earthquake effect of the bass.
“When I asked for the club to turn the volume down, I was told ‘we were here first’, which a customer then repeated. When the pollution officer from the council was sent to inspect a noise complaint, she did not get out of her car or step foot in the venue, and had left before 11pm when things were just warming up.”
She added that last year she had to take a day off sick from work, after being kept awake all night by noise when the venue was celebrating its 40th anniversary. She also said she spent over £2,500 on installing new windows in her rented flat, to reduce how much she could hear.
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Ms Cooper, a “lifelong St Paul’s resident”, said she moved into her social housing flat in 2011. Given how long the waiting list is for social housing in Bristol, she previously said moving to a different home would be difficult.
Cosies has been described as a “Bristol institution”, having first opened over four decades ago. The bar hosts regular dub and reggae nights as well as a variety of music from up and coming DJs, with entry prices usually capped at £5.
Ewen Macgregor, a licensing solicitor representing the venue, said: “There are no supporting representations to the application. There are no statements, no petition, no letters in support and no acoustic survey. Not one [other] resident has come forward to support the review.
“She knows the system and has made representations to this committee before. What you have here is a pattern of behaviour. I don’t mean to be glib or jocular or flippant when I say this, but the only people who are benefiting from this are the lawyers.”
Council staff did visit the venue after a noise complaint, but nobody on the neighbourhood enforcement team works after 1am, causing difficulty in assessing how loud the music is later in the night. Complicating the problem is the other nearby venues, which also stay open late, making it hard for staff to assess where the noise is coming from.
Megan Davies, a senior neighbourhood enforcement officer, said: “We only operate until 1am on our out-of-hours service. We don’t have the resources to visit at 3am. The latest visit that has been completed was at 10.45pm. We don’t have staff that work beyond 1am.”
Without evidence of loud music later in the night, and in the absence of other complaints from neighbours, councillors decided to take no action. They could have chosen to add new conditions to the venue’s licence or even revoke it, preventing the bar from selling alcohol.
Councillor Emma Edwards, chair of the licensing hearing, said: “While we do have great sympathy for Ms Cooper concerning the noise she has experienced, we do not consider that there is sufficient evidence that the public nuisance test has been met. It should affect the community or a section of the public, rather than individuals.”
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