Pub popular with Sheffield Wednesday football fans can open an outdoor bar

The Horse and Jockey on Wadsley Lane has been taken over by True North brewery, who are currently renovating the pub and hoping to reopen in October.

Councillors on the licensing board were surprised the pub had previously been granted permission to open until 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays as it’s surrounded by houses but agreed an outbuilding can be used as a bar.

Some neighbours had raised concerns about being disturbed but True North said last orders outside would be 10.30pm, the bar would close at 11pm and customers would then be asked to move indoors or leave.

Alex Liddle of True North said a function room and dining overflow would be created upstairs in the main pub while the outbuilding would become a bar with seating for around 20 people.

He said the pub would have security staff for busy days, such as when Sheffield Wednesday play, and they would monitor behaviour and ultimately ask antisocial customers to leave.

“Over the past four years we have rented the pub out to somebody else so we will certainly apologise to neighbours for anything that’s happened but we offer them assurances that we are responsible operators.

“We’ve no problem barring antisocial people, we’re not interested in entertaining that kind of behaviour.

“We haven’t actually operated in the pub ourselves yet but we have had discussions with the previous tenant about what they did on match days.

“The feedback is you generally have a busy couple of hours pre-match and you’ll see about 60 to 70 per cent of those people return after a match depending on what the weather’s like, what the day of the week it is and what the result is.

“I don’t envisage it going late into the night – there are very few times a year and certainly during the football season where it’s warm enough to be outside – but we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on the noise levels and making sure people leave quietly.”