The green light has been given to a Brentwood pub to allow customers to come in until 12midnight for a six month trial.
The landlord of The White Hart, Norman Ellenby, asked the licensing and appeals committee to lift the restriction preventing people entering the upstairs area of the High Street pub after 10.30pm.
The upstairs bar has a license to open until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays and Mr Ellenby said he was trying to establish a place for people over 25 to go but said the restriction was causing him problems attracting the customers he was targeting.
He said: "I feel a lot of the people I want to attract are still in restaurants at 10.30pm and so when they get to us we cannot let them in because of this guillotine time."
He answered fears raised by the committee that lifting the restrictions would bring new people into the town late on a Friday or Saturday night by saying he was hoping to attract those already in the town.
The application will be reviewed again by the Licensing and Appeals Committee in six months.
Published Friday January 23, 2004
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