The Chorley village micropub, The Cockt’ale, was set to open last month but owners Ruth Hull and her husband Richard unfortunately found themselves cancelling the opening at the last minute due to planning issues.
The Chorley Council stepped in and warned that couple of the consequences of opening, therefore leaving Ruth with no other option than to cancel the launch at the last minute.
She said:
“I was told when I was given my licence, there you go, you can open tomorrow and change of use to A4 will be granted retrospectively.
“I’ve never done this kind of thing before. Whatever I’ve done was in total innocence – and not arrogance.
“Thank goodness we have another pub. What on earth would have happened to all that beer? I’m talking about £2,000 worth of beer.”
Chorley Council also received complaints from locals over parking concerns outside of the micropub, however, Ruth does not expect the locals to be driving down to the pub since they do not serve meals & are a drink-focused pub.
While the couple have all the licenses in place for the premises, Coun Paul Walmsley, who deals with planning issues for the council said that they do not have the planning permission to change the use of the building into a bar.
Ruth and Richard have now submitted an application which is to be reviewed at a development control meeting that will take place on 27th Oct.