Osterley Park Hotel Has Licensing Hours Reduced

Venue must use metal detector and not hold externally promoted events

The Osterley Park Hotel. Picture: Google Streetview

A controversial application for a premises licence variation by the Osterley Park Hotel has been approved by the borough Licensing Panel.

The venue at 764 Great West Road in Isleworth will have reduced licensed hours and is subject to a number of new conditions.

The application was made by Stetson Property Developments Ltd and came after a number of complaints from residents about noise, anti-social behaviour and parking issues around the premises.

Last orders will now be 11.30pm Sunday to Thursday and 12.30am Friday and Saturday with closing a half an hour later. Live music, recorded music and dancing must cease at last orders. The restrictions on serving drink apply to both indoors and outdoors.

The application to vary was only in relation to the parts of the premises known as the “public house bar area”.”

The hearing was held as a virtual meeting with three councillors in attendance.

Seven representations were received from residents who were concerned with noise, public nuisance and anti-social behaviour. Two councillors also formally raised concerns and the boroughs Pollution Team also drew the panels attention to previous issues with noise and breaches of planning conditions.

Stetson Property Developments Ltd were represented by a solicitor who said his client had voluntarily agreed to reduce licensed hours and that the conditions and hours had been agreed with the Police and the Council’s Licensing Teams. He argued against a further reduction in licensed hours being imposed on the venue.

The objectors represented by Osterley & Wyke Green Residents' Association (OWGRA) provided a PowerPoint presentation outlining the reasons for their wish that licensing hours be even more restricted than in the application and that these reduced hours encompass the whole of the establishment, not just the Terminal 6 lounge, but also the function rooms, of which there are now four.   The Panel decided that some of the reasons for objection raised were not relevant because they were more appropriate for an application for a review of the Premises Licence rather than a variation.

The Panel also approved the updated plans for the building and the site, including some external areas and the agreed to new conditions that the premise will not hold any externally promoted events and a metal detection device be randomly used by door supervisors to search patrons for weapons.

A spokesperson for OWGRA said after the decision, "LBH Licensing let local residents down in going for a variation instead of a review, and only relating to the pub (Terminal 6 lounge), whereas most of the ASB comes from the events in the function rooms. We get the strong impression that the variation was based on the incident outside the Terminal 6 lounge (pub) when there was the alleged stabbing on 3 October, yet we have been reporting problems across the hotel over the last 6 months, and it mainly comes from guests attending events in the function rooms. If only LBH Licensing had engaged with us directly rather than at arm’s length we wouldn’t be in this mess. It’s crazy having different licensing hours for the pub and the function rooms, and no additional conditions to deal with those. The hotel is not even abiding by many of its current conditions and the Council seems to be doing nothing about it.

"The other aspect which needs addressing urgently is all the substantial building work they have done in the last year without planning permission, and we can’t understand why Hounslow Planning Enforcement is being so reluctant and slow in dealing with that, particularly as the old part is a locally listed building in a conservation area. Again, we have been informing planning of all these issues since early 2021 but they have not engaged with us."

January 11, 2022