A Cheshire village pub six which has been renovated, has added an outdoor dining area to cater for customers' concerns following the Covid pandemic - a licensing committee heard.

The Royal Oak, Worleston, just five miles from Crewe, reopened on April 5 after undergoing a full refurbishment.

The pub has applied to vary its licence to include a 60 seat brick-built dining room and a further outdoor open walled shelter for outdoor dining.

The Royal Oak, Worlestom is located just five miles from Crewe (The Royal Oak)

Some neighbours have objected to the licence application.

Pub owner John Schofield told a meeting of Cheshire East's Licensing Act sub-committee in Sandbach on Wednesday: "I always intended to keep it as a small place as it was.

"But, because of Covid we needed more indoor space and we certainly needed more outdoor space, which I've gone on and developed over the last three years."

He said the pub, which dated back to 1860 and employs 25 people, had once been run by his grandparents in the 1950s and 60s.

"It's going to be a community pub, a pub for local people where they can dine, have a drink.

"We've pulled back on the licensing hours and everything I've done I've tried to do my very best to make it compliant with neighbouring properties," said Mr Schofield.

"The problem is the properties [houses] were built too near to the pub."

He said this had happened when the land had been sold by a previous owner of the pub.

The committee was told the fencing had been put up, extra insulation put in the dining room walls for soundproofing and extraction fans and carbon filters 'beyond what is required' had been installed to deal with cooking smells.

Committee chair David Edwardes told the meeting the licensing hours being applied for had been reduced.

Cllr David Edwardes, Macclesfield Tytherington, Independent (Belinda Ryan).

Originally the opening hours were 10am to midnight Monday to Thursday and 10am to 1am Friday to Sunday.

"And it's now closing at 11 o'clock midweek as it were, 12 o'clock Friday and Saturday and 10 o'clock on Sunday. That is clear. The hours have been reduced," said Cllr Edwardes.

Objector Charlotte Wilcock, who spoke on behalf of some neighbours, said: "Regardless of previous planning and the closeness of the properties to the pub site, that is irrelevant to today's proceedings. "

She said noise and smells could impact on neighbours and that when people bought their houses – which were built about seven years ago – they were told the area the pub now planned to use, was to have been private.

"I can fully appreciate everyone's gone through the Covid pandemic and appreciate some people aren't comfortable sitting inside so want to sit outside," said Mrs Wilcock.

"But equally the size of the area, the proximity to the properties and the concerns over noise and sound egress into the properties, and originally the opening hours were extended over what they are now being reduced to, so it meant no times, for those properties, when they were not going to be impacted by that."

The Royal Oak has applied to vary its licence to include a 60 seat brick-built dining room and a further outdoor open walled shelter for outdoor dining (The Royal Oak).

Mr Schofield agreed to a suggestion of closing the children's play area at 9pm and that outside dining would end at dusk.

Cheshire East Council will publish its decision on the licence application by the end of this week (May 20).

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(Ryan Parker and Belinda Ryan).