A FENCE pub has avoided punishment after residents complained of late night noise and music.

Residents upset at the noise coming from the Bay Horse, in Wheatley Lane Road, brought a review of the premises licence before Pendle Council, backed by the council’s environmental health team.

But the pub avoided closure and any new conditions on its licence as no complaints had been received since October.

People living near the pub were given diaries by Pendle Council’s environmental health team to record incidents of excessive noise between April and October last year.

Since then a noise limiter has been fitted at the pub, which has a licence to serve until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights, and residents said the situation had improved.

Mark Allen, owner of the premises, said: “When we got notification of these problems last year we were horrified and we have made an effort to speak to residents and try and solve any problems we have.

“We have now bolted closed windows in the pool room and restaurant as well as those in the bar, and have stopped customers taking any drinks outside when going for a cigarette.”

Arthur Studdard, who represented the residents and whose 97-year-old father-in-law lives next to the pub, said villagers were fed up of bottles and glasses being left in the streets when drinkers leave the Fence Gate Inn to go to the Bay Horse, which is open an hour later.

He said: “There has been a public house on the site off the Bay Horse for something like 200 years but this is the first time there have been complaints about how it has been run.”

Mr Studdard and environmental health officer Jackie Dickinson said residents had complained of hearing loud music and noise from taxis in the early hours of the morning on several occasions last summer.

But Pendle Council’s licensing committee were satisfied that measures taken by the pub had put a stop to this, and did not impose any extra restrictions or conditions on the licence.