Angmering hotel's successful appeal

Plans to turn Syon House in Angmering into a country house hotel, prompted Angmering residents to lodge 56 letters of objection with the council, making it the most unpopular licensing application in the eastern part of the Arun district last year.

Arun's licensing sub-committee had originally placed a number of conditions on the prospective hotel's licence in October, including clauses which meant that only its residents and their registered guests could use the facilities there.

The Chapman Group, which owns Syon House, first lodged its appeal against these conditions in November, stating that the business would be seriously affected if the people of Angmering couldn't also use the hotel's bar and restaurant.

Following an initial appeal at Worthing Magistrates' Court on Monday, January 16, in which several neighbours of Syon House voiced their concerns, the magistrates adjourned the hearing until last Wednesday to consider the evidence put before them.

Reading out the court's decision last Wednesday, magistrate John Hill said: "From what we have heard and read we do not consider that conditions one and six are necessary and proportionate to meet the licensing objectives."

Conditions one and six were those placed on the licence by Arun dictating who could use the hotel.

Now they have been lifted, once work on the former training school for nuns is completed this winter, anyone can use the hotel's facilities.

A noise management plan and other conditions placed by Arun remain in force and the hotel's opening hours and licensing hours are unchanged.

Jane Rowley, chairman of the Angmering Society, said: "We hope that the hotel will be an asset to the village scene and we hope that any restrictions left on the licence are kept to because if they are not, there's a number of courses of the law through which complaints can go."

Speaking after the hearing, the hotel's owner, Chris Chapman, said: "Angmering has changed a lot over the past few years.

"I can understand my neighbours' concerns but once they see Syon House open and they see the quality of the food and the type of people we are attracting, it will allay their fears."

He added: "If three people from the village who were here today come into Syon House, I'll have done my job."