Shrewsbury church in bid to serve booze
A church has applied for a licence that will allow it to have longer opening hours and serve alcohol.
St Chad's Church in Shrewsbury has applied to Shropshire Council for a new premises licence for the church and church hall.
It will enable the church to show films and stage plays, live music and dance performances from 9am to 10.30pm. It will also allow it to supply alcohol between 10.30am to 10.30pm.
The application will be heard at a meeting of the council's licensing act sub-committee on Thursday.
In their application church officials state that the building will be open from 8am to 11pm.
They also have CCTV provision and will keep any recordings for 28 days.
Peter Flint, church warden at St Chad's, said: "We are applying for a performance licence for the church which will allow us to hold our popular lunchtime concerts. We also have choirs visiting from all over the world and a licence will allow them to perform. We like to offer our guests a glass of wine and the licence would cover that.
"For the church hall we have applied in the past for temporary events licences but there is only a certain number you can apply for. We need licences to cover functions relating to church business such as harvest festivals and then we will serve a glass of sherry to the congregation. That is the reason for the application."
Fifteen objections have been received to the application from people concerned about noise, crime and disorder, public nuisance, public safety and protecting children from harm.
The majority of the concerns relate to the church hall and the nuisance and disorder which may be caused if a licence was granted. There are also concerns regarding the behaviour of people at night when around the church hall. Concerns were also raised as to public safety regarding the church hall in the event of a fire.
But church officials state that the maximum number of people on the premises will never exceed the legal maximum, regular checks will be undertaken to ensure that there is no noise nuisance and notices will be displayed on exit doors asking patrons to leave quietly.
