10:00am Wednesday 17th March 2010
By John Geoghegan
A UNIVERSITY acting school wants to extend the conditions of the alcohol licence it has just been granted.
In January, the University of Essex won permission to sell alcohol at its new East 15 Acting School at the former Clifftown United Reformed Church, in Nelson Street.
The licence was granted subject to a strict condition alcohol ass only sold over one-and-a-half hours each day between 1pm and 11pm, it can only be drunk in the bar area and a closure time of 11pm.
But the university wants customers to be able to drink in the theatre area and to be able to sell for longer during the day if there are two performances taking place.
Spokeswoman for the university Jenny Grinter said: “Certain details of the licence don’t tie in with how we would like to use it as a theatre bar. “The licence says we can only have drinks in the bar area, but for cabaret-style performances, people drink at tables in the theatre area.
“Also we would like to see if the serving time can be extended for a couple of hours longer.
“If we had a matinee and evening performance on the same day you are restricted on the hours.
“We’d like to emphasise this won’t be a student union bar, it will be a theatre bar.”
The university tried to appeal, through Southend Magistrates’ Court, against the conditions of the licence, but then withdraw.
It has instead decided to submit a new application to the council to vary the current licence.
East 15 won the initial permission following a licensing hearing in which the council received 29 objections from residents and one letter from a business.
They were concerned about groups of students congregating in Nelson Mews, and a potential increase in noise and disturbance.
The acting school moved into the building last October following its £5million conversion from a church into multi-purpose performance space including studio and workshop space.
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