FOLLOWING substantial complaints about loud music at the Galleon Inn, Starcross, on June 7, the landlady Janet Harbert had accepted a formal caution for being in breach of an abatement notice issued on January 6.

Teignbridge Council's Environmental Health Department is also investigating an alleged breach on July 26, the district authority's licensing and appeals committee heard on Wednesday.

Miss Harbert was applying to renew the public entertainment licence for Monday and Tuesday 5-11pm, Wednesday-Saturday noon-11pm and Sunday noon-10.30pm.

The current permitted hours are Monday-Saturday 11am-11pm and Sunday noon-10.30pm

The committee deferred the application for two months pending an up-to-date fire officers report and the outcome of an environmental health department investigation.

Chairman Cllr Sandra Heath said there would also be an amendment to the current licence during that time where public entertainment could only take place once weekly with the exception of a week in November where two pre-booked events would be permitted.

Warning Miss Harbert to be aware of the ongoing situation, Cllr Heath told her: 'it is business can carry on, but not quite business as usual.'

Miss Harbert said she had taken over the premises on July 22 last year and had since improved it tremendously, carrying out a lot of work and speaking to environmental health officers about it.

The breach had occurred a week before the work started and she had accepted it was an oversight on her part.

She maintained only one person was complaining while everyone else in the village was happy sending in petitions and letters of support.

'The parish council has said we have had various visits by the police, but that is not true,' she said – the police offered no objection.

Miss Harbert added that there was music about three times a month on a Saturday evening and a jukebox during the week.

She said the reason for the work was to help control the noise. It was a very old building and the music had been hitting a wall and going out. Now the wall had gone and the noise remained in the building while two doorways were blocked up and double doors now served the car park.

'In the past couple of weeks we have decided to lock the doors going into the car park and we close them while the band is playing and put a notice up telling customers to come in the front,' she said.

While looking at plans with the committee, Miss Harbert told members she did not mean that she locked the doors but closed them and put a notice on them.

Environmental health officer, Colin Bignall said the formal caution remained on the books for three years.

He said there was a test night by an officer during a karaoke on June 28, which proved fine, though it was pointed out by the complainant that a band was the acid test.

Mr Bignall said evidence was being gathered regarding the complaint on July 26.

Objector David Wainwright, who lives some 15-18 yards from the Galleon Inn, with his wife and three children, said the family had enjoyed very good relations with previous tenants of the pub.

'The previous landlord would tell us if it was going to be noisy and we would go away and he would turn up with a bunch of flowers,' he said.

Mr Wainwright said that when Miss Harbert arrived they had tried to discuss the matter, but she had suggested possibly he might be interested in paying for some work at the public house.

'There were repeated incidents last year and many occasions when two of my three children were forced to sleep in the rear of the house. We reluctantly decided to call the environmental health department.

'A notice was served and there have been a number of problems since,' he claimed.

Mr Wainwright continued that he appreciated Miss Harbert had a business to run but should be capable of running it in a way that did not infringe on the family's home.

'I should not be expected to hear the thump of a base or lyrics of a song inside my house. Fundamentally Miss Harbert needs to turn the volume down. It is as simple as that,' he stated.