Sass in Weston ‘perplexed’ at claims it has cost hotel over £10k

Sass Bar by the Italian Gardens applied to North Somerset Council to stay open for an hour later each night, but the Royal Hotel, on the other side of South Parade, lodged an objection.

The hotel’s owners said that 60 per cent of their rooms were on the Sass side of South Parade and they “constantly” had complaints about music and people standing outside the bar to smoke.

They said they had to pay out £11,453.80 in refunds to guests disturbed by noise in 2023 alone.

When the case came before North Somerset Council’s licensing subcommittee on August 6, David Campbell, who represented Brandon Mu of Sass Bar, told councillors: “The objection itself is somewhat perplexing.

“We as the applicant find it hard to believe that such damages have been paid out without the Royal Hotel, some 20 metres over the road and having relations with Sass Bar, raising it with Mr Mu.

“If we are not told, it’s very hard for us to take action.”

The Royal Hotel in Weston. (Image: Visit Weston-super-Mare)

He added the hotel had an “ongoing relationship” with the bar, and the bar even rented car parking from the hotel.

He said: “Mr Mu was quite surprised when he heard the objection because we wish we had known that.”

Joe Hibbard, a director of the management company running the Royal Hotel, told councillors it was not just that noise resulted in a “large number” of complaints and refunds.

He said: “We frequently see […] customers from Sass try to enter our hotel once they have left Sass.”

But Mr Campbell said that the bar had stayed open to the proposed hours on several occasions under temporary event notices and received no complaints.

There were also no objections from police or environmental health to the application to extend Sass’s hours.

Mr Campbell added that there were other bars nearby including the Vaults which he said was leased by the owners of the hotel.

He added that Mr Mu had already been looking at moving the Sass smoking area to the back of the business, closer to Vinnie’s and further from the hotel.

Sass had been seeking to extend its hours by an hour each night, to 2.30am Monday to Thursday and 3am Friday to Sunday. But the licensing committee said they would only grant them part of what they wanted.

Chair of the licensing subcommittee Mike Solomon said: “We have decided we are going to extend the hours on a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening.

“We are not willing to change the hours on a Monday to Wednesday or Sunday.”

Councillors also said they would only grant the extension on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays to 2.30am, not 3am as the bar had applied for.