Pub is officially a pub at last...

A PUB has been given official permission to run as a drinking establishment - almost five years after it first opened.

- By GARETH LIGHTFOOT

The Hardwick pub has been running since 2020, but an application for planning permission to change the Stockton building's use from a shop to a drinking establishment has been gathering dust since, because of a delayed noise report.

In 2020 the proposal for a pub with beer garden and smoking shelter attracted 11 letters of objection, five of support.

Councillors have now heard things had since “settled down” and The Hardwick was now enjoyed by the community.

One objector wrote at the time: “I don’t feel this is the right place for a pub its in the middle of a residential estate with lots of young families. There is a risk that crime and anti social behaviour increases when people are fuelled with alcohol.”

Another said in 2020: “I don’t want to walk past with kids when coming home from school to people sitting outside drinking.”

Objectors raised issues including parking, traffic, nuisance, property values, smoke and waste.