A clampdown on the licensed hours of Peterhead’s popular Bar 57 nightclub has been successfully appealed at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, winning the operators a fresh hearing from Aberdeen Licensing Board.
The appeal was sought to challenge the outcome of a licence review held at the request of Police Scotland in October 2024.
At that hearing, which followed a spate of violent incidents, Aberdeenshire Licensing Board cut the premises’ trading hours to 2am, and imposed a midnight curfew.
Owners Carl and Robin Hansen, trading as Clara House Ltd, maintained that the main incident that had motivated the Police action was uncharacteristic, and had been the ‘worse they had seen in 22 years’ in the business.
Further, they warned that the restricted hours could force Bar 57 to close, as the reality was that 60% of its turnover came from its post 1am trading period.
The popular Peterhead nightspot, with an electronic dance music focus, is part of a hybrid venue, joined onto the side of the more traditional Caley Bar.
The Hansens instructed Stephen McGowan, Partner at TLT, and Scott Blair, advocate at Terra Firma Chambers, to represent them in the appeal, which was heard before Sheriff Principal Pyle, on April 10th at Aberdeen.
Pyle gave an ex tempore – on the spot – decision to allow the appeal and ordered the licensing board to hear the review application again afresh, disregarding the previous decision.
The Sheriff said that in imposing the original sanctions, the board had acted unlawfully in a number of ways, agreeing with counsel for the pursuer that the licensing board had ‘run out of intellectual steam’ in the reasoning behind its decisions.
The Sheriff noted that the licensing board had failed to seek the views of the licence holder’s agent when a proposed curfew was debated as a possible sanction; and failed to explain why it preferred the police version of certain alleged events over the version presented by the licence holder’s agent.
The Court was also critical of the failure of the licensing board to provide reasons as to why the curfew and reduction in hours was either appropriate or necessary.
The licensing board will now require to re-hear the case at a date to be determined. In the meantime, the venue’s original 3am license is back in operation.
