The £500,000 refurbishment of a Braintree town centre pub will be delayed for months after a rival nightspot complained.

Plans to revamp and expand the Bull pub in Market Place, Braintree, will have to wait until next year before going before councillors again following the formal complaint from Courtmead, owners of nearby nightclub H2O in the High Street.

Bosses of The Bull pub, owned by Greene King, wanted to temporarily close the 16th century building during the next two months to modernise the drinking venue.

But Courtmead was worried The Bull pub could crank up the music and insisted it should have the same noise restrictions as H2O.

The original planning application did not assess the noise impact on the area.

A spokesman for Braintree Council said despite meetings between bosses of the two clubs, the objection was not removed.

A revised planning application has now been made, going into detail about noise levels and answering council concerns about changes to the fabric of the building.

Greene King want to spend £500,000 refurbishing the Bull to give it a more modern feel. The application includes altering the building to add concertina doors to the front and extra fire escapes.

Craig Metson, assistant manager of the pub, said: "We are a bit disappointed to have to delay the refurbishment as we were all looking forward to the change."

Plans to have a closing party on October 13 had to be cancelled and the refurbishment has been deferred until the issues have been resolved.

Published Wednesday October 23, 2002

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