Ambitious plans to increase capacity in a town centre Wetherspoons by a third have been rejected by licensing chiefs.
The Paddle Steamer in Largs applied to extend the access for children and young people to 11pm and also to allow off-sales from 11am until 10pm, seven days a week, as well as increasing the capacity from 225 to 300.
That figure had been brought down from 390, which was the original request following concerns voiced by Board members.
Agent Stephen McGowan told Monday’s meeting of North Ayrshire Licensing Board: “In terms of sales it would just be takeaways. In Wetherspoons for instance you would get a craft beer that you can’t get at the Co-op next door. We want to put it in line with every other Wetherspoons in the country.
“In terms of children and young people, Wetherspoons are asking for some flexibility for some families coming in for a meal and asking for that to be relaxed by an hour.
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“The premises sells as much food as it does drink. Families are coming in for a table at 8.30 pm or 9pm and they sometimes have to be turned away as there is no space for them to dine because of the cut-off. This would allow them to dine a little bit later. Under-18s would not be allowed in the bar area.
“In terms of the capacity request, some of your honours had reservations about this. My clients have asked me to propose a modification, they have reflected on the concerns from the June Board and instead of presenting the original proposals they have brought forward a revision.
“At the moment capacity is 225, the initial proposal was a capacity of 390 and this caused your honours’ concerns. There were concerns about that.
“My clients have proposed a modification and we are asking for 300 and we made that amendment in good faith and hopefully it shows we have reflected on the concerns raised at the last hearing. This is a significant reduction on what we were asking for before. The 390 was based on fire risk assessment and the building control officer said the appropriate capacity was 375.”
Cllr Christina Larsen asked if prams, mobility vehicles for wheelchairs had been included in calculations for the increased capacity and a Building Control representative said they had.
North Coast Cllr Ian Murdoch said: “I would like to pick up on a few things. In my opinion not much has changed, there are hundreds if not thousands of comments about lack of staff, dirty tables, general chaos and long waiting times at the Paddle Steamer.
“Inside is packed to what I consider over capacity and difficult to deal with, outside is dirty and noisy with clouds of smoke and vape smoke from people walking past, the terrace is noisy with bad behaviour and extremely bad language which does not help Largs tourism or the image of Largs and not a good example for children walking past the prom or within the premises.”
Cllr Larsen said recent logs from the company suggested even during the summer on Fridays or Saturday nights they were not close to capacity, making her question the need for an increase.
She proposed extending access for children and young people and allowing the off-sales application.
However she proceeded to refuse the capacity increase based on the “licensing objective of public safety” and concerns from members of the public.
This was seconded by Cllr Ronnie Stalker and unanimously agreed by the Board.
Mr McGowan said he and the company representatives would think about the decision and consider coming back before the Board within a year.
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