Objectors fuel hate campaign'

A Camden host has been subjected to a sustained hate campaign and received 110 objections to her application for extended hours despite never having a recorded problem with police or environmental health in her six years at the north London pub.

Jane Symonds, licensee at the Princess of Wales in Primrose Hill, said she had received "nasty phone calls questioning her parentage" and there had also been a flyer campaign that had yielded a vast number of objections to the council.

Symonds wishes to extend her hours to 2am because she has a downstairs function room but would only serve until 12.30am in the pub area.

"The pub is really quiet and our customers are mostly middle-aged," she said.

"We have jazz two nights a week, but there has been a complete misunderstanding of the licensing laws.

"They think I am now going to be running a casino and disco every night."

Another licensee, Dave Stanley of the Black Horse in Reigate, Surrey, believes he is also suffering unfairly at the hands of residents who seemed to be bearing a grudge.

Residents had objected to his restaurant extension when Stanley took on the pub two years ago.

Now the same people have objected to Stanley's application for an extra hour's trading.

Morning Advertiser legal expert Peter Coulson said that mass objections were "highly predictable" and could become a "nightmare" situation for licensees.

"However it is not fatal as the case has to be proved by the objectors," he said.