Artisan glass blowers have been granted an alcohol licence to help secure their future in Bath despite fears of “cackling” hen parties.
Bath Aqua Glass on Walcot Street | Photo © Google 2021
Bath Aqua Glass managing director Annette Dolan said she had been “duped” by a professional whose application to sell booze until 11pm sparked concerns the Walcot Street studio would become a bar or off-licence.
With the Bell pub next door, Avon and Somerset Police also objected as there would be two licensed businesses side by side.
Bath Aqua Glass, which plans to run a cafe and sell bottles of Mrs Dolan’s son’s wine with specially made goblets, offered to stop selling alcohol at 8pm Monday to Saturday and at 4pm on Sundays.
Mrs Dolan, who started the business in 1996 and runs it with husband Adrian, told Bath and North East Somerset Council’s licensing subcommittee on 22nd April: “We want to create more revenue in the business so we can save jobs and keep Bath Aqua Glass going.
“It’s been very difficult, the past year. The government have advised that we need to diversify. We came up with an idea of a cafe.”
She added: “The vision that was presented was wrong. We don’t want people outside drinking.
“We don’t want people outside smoking and drinking. That’s the last thing we want. It came over wrong.
“I feel I was duped by the man. He wasn’t representing us properly so we got rid of him. He’s upset all the neighbours.
“People that come are usually responsible, respectable people. They aren’t coming for a drinking session.”
Objector Lynda Whiting lives in the listed building next door to the premises and said the noise level would be “unbearable”.
She said: “I’m not poo-pooing any business venture. It concerns me when they’re having all these different activities.
“They have hen parties. They’ll be drinking gin and tonics and be out there cackling.
“That worries me. I should imagine it worries Bath.
“I will not have quiet enjoyment in my own home, which as a council tax payer I’m entitled to.
“We chose to live in the city but the goalposts have been changed.”
Mrs Whiting also raised concerns about safety, saying two people had died crossing the road in the last 18 years.
Susan Williams, who has lived in Walcot Street for 25 years, said: “I don’t think we need another alcohol business next to us, when we’ve already got the Bell pub just down the road. We have a lot of noise.
“They drop glasses. Who’s to say the people congregating inside the glass blowing aren’t going to the same, sitting on our walls, leaving their glasses, congregating. Selling cakes is fine. Being open until 9pm I don’t think is really acceptable.”
Responding to the concerns, Mrs Dolan said: “We are responsible with our business. We don’t want to become an off licence.
“We aren’t going to become a bar. We’re fundamentally a glass heritage business in the city. We just want a way to keep ourselves going.”
Mrs Dolan said the hen parties they host are actually “hen craft groups” that make mosaic hearts, and promised to “do my best to keep people quiet”.
She said they would only sell her son’s expensive wine in gift sets and the licence was needed to send them by post.
Granting the licence, subcommittee chair Councillor Manda Rigby said: “I wish Annette and everyone else at the business all the best as they come out of what I’m sure has been a very challenging period.
“I hope that adding this cafe style facility will help them remain a valued part of the artisan heritage quarter of Bath.”
She told the objectors that if there was an issue with the licence or other elements of the business they should contact the council.
Stephen Sumner, Local Democracy Reporter
