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Beatles' Yellow Submarine sung from Greatstone Sotorios's 103 restaurant, councillors told in noise hearing

Noisy customers sang The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine during a lock-in at a nightspot, prompting a neighbour to complain.

Cotton wool and sticky tape were used on windows to muffle the regular din from music, a licensing hearing was told.

Nicholas Brooks told Shepway councillors there were also incidents of drunken rowdiness from the Sotirio’s 103 restaurant and cabaret venue in Greatstone.

Sotirio's 103 restaurant and cabaret nightspot.
Sotirio's 103 restaurant and cabaret nightspot.

He said: “There was a Sunday when there was noise from singing and they were singing ‘we all live in a yellow submarine’. It was two hours after the restaurant closed.

“Cotton wool has been stuffed in cracks of windows and walls and sticky tape put on windows.”

Mr Brooks, with his partner Elizabeth Hetterley, also complained of vandalism and said they had suffered drunks leaning over their fence and vomiting into their garden.

Sour note for Beatles classic: Sotirio's 103 restaurant in Greatstone.
Sour note for Beatles classic: Sotirio's 103 restaurant in Greatstone.

Shepway District Council’s licensing sub-committee on Wednesday last week decided not to revoke the Coast Drive nightspot’s licence.

But it did order managers to fit a noise-limiting device and make sure that music never reaches neighbours’ ears.

Mr Brooks, who lives next door at Varne Mews, had complained both of disturbance from the venue and of a lack of effective action by Shepway District Council despite it imposing a noise abatement order on the premises in August 2014.

"There was a Sunday when there was noise from singing and they were singing 'we all live in a yellow submarine'" - Nicholas Brooks

In a written submission he told of a racket from live and recorded music and customers leaving the premises, describing some as “rowdy, swearing, screaming, shouting, laughing, cheering and drunk.”

He said that bored, unsupervised children had started fires and thrown pebbles into their property when their parents were inside Sotirio’s drinking during lock-ins.

Mr Brooks applied to the council to have the licence reviewed.

He said: “I want noise reduction, simple as that and for anti-social behaviour to be stopped.”

Mr Brooks’ written submission also told of more than 30 calls to environmental services from March to August this year and said police had to be called at least three times.

The meeting heard that Sotirio’s had planned anyway to put in a noise limiter.

The Beatles. Photo by Harry Goodwin/Rex Features.
The Beatles. Photo by Harry Goodwin/Rex Features.

The sub-committee also said that all music and entertainment should stop no later than 11.30pm Mondays to Saturdays and 6pm on Sundays.

Sotorios' solicitor Nicholas Price said that live music at the venue stopped at 11pm Monday to Saturday and recorded songs stopped at 11.45pm in the run-up to midnight closure.

He said there was no evidence of lock-ins and that triple glazing had been installed last month.

For the full story see this week's Romney Marsh edition of the Kentish Express.

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