Kings Arms Westerham wins 1am licence with new noise curbs

Greene King can serve drink at the Kings Arms Hotel in Westerham until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. The varied premises licence was issued on Tuesday 8 September, six weeks after a Sevenoaks District Council licensing panel heard the application and six residents’ objections to it on 28 July, and it carries conditions that keep regulated music out of the ground floor bar after 11pm and clear the outside areas at the same hour. (Sevenoaks District Council, public licensing register, premises licence 26/02279/LAPRE)

What the licence now allows

The register lists the licensable activities as granted, and on the four headline hours they match the application as it was made:

• Alcohol, 10am to 11pm Sunday to Thursday, and 10am to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, in place of 11am to 11pm and 11am to midnight.
• Late night refreshment, hot food and drink, 11pm to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, where the old licence stopped at midnight.
• Live music, indoors, 6pm to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays; recorded music, indoors, 6pm to 11pm Sunday to Thursday and 6pm to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. The superseded licence allowed both to 11pm every day.
• Alcohol and hot food 24 hours a day for hotel residents and their bona fide guests, the exemption the brewer argued is standard for residential premises.

The festive extra hour the pub already held survives, on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, the spring and August bank holidays, the Easter weekend, St George’s Day, St Patrick’s Day and the days either side of a bank holiday, along with New Year’s Eve trading through to close of business on New Year’s Day. (Register entry, activities, 26/02279/LAPRE; superseded licence 19/01183/LAPRE)

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The six conditions attached

The extra hours did not come unconditioned. Beyond the mandatory conditions every licence carries, the register lists six specific to this premises, and they track the objections almost line by line:

1. No regulated live or recorded music in the ground floor bar area beyond 11pm on any day, other than in line with the non-standard timings. The midnight music the licence allows on a Friday or Saturday therefore cannot happen in the bar at the front of the building, the room the neighbours wrote about.
2. The external licensed customer area must be cleared of people by 11pm, except for access and egress. The applicant offered this at the hearing; the condition makes it enforceable.
3. The festive extra hour does not apply, New Year’s Day aside, if it would push alcohol sales, regulated entertainment or late night refreshment past 1am. In plain terms, 1am is the ceiling for the whole year bar one night.
4. A noise management plan must be implemented, shared with the licensing authority and reviewed by the premises every year.
5. A dispersal plan on the same terms, covering how customers leave.
6. A direct telephone number for the duty manager must be given to neighbouring residents, so concerns go to the pub rather than into a complaints queue.

(Register entry, conditions, 26/02279/LAPRE)

What the panel decided, and why

The decision was made at the hearing itself. The sub-committee withdrew at 11.42am and returned at 12.28pm, when the chairman announced it was minded to grant the application with conditions. (Sevenoaks District Council, Licensing Hearing minutes, 28 July 2026)

Three councillors sat: Cllr Clack, who chaired, and Cllrs Haslam and Hogarth. Four residents attended and spoke.

The notice of determination is dated 31 July and says the licence took effect from 28 July. (Sevenoaks District Council, Notice of Determination, 26/02279/LAPRE) That is inside the five working days the hearings regulations allow. (The Licensing Act 2003 (Hearings) Regulations 2005, regulation 26)

The notice gives the panel’s reasons:

• It “welcomed the increased employment” and the £1.4 million investment, which it said would support local tourism and the night-time economy.
• It considered it “significant” that the council’s noise nuisance team had reviewed the pub’s noise management plan and had no objection.
• It was concerned that the holiday extra hour, falling on a Friday or Saturday, would have allowed alcohol sales until 2am, “which the applicant had not intended”. That is the reason for the 1am ceiling.
• It accepted that the applicant wanted to co-operate with residents, and called a direct contact number for neighbours in Yew Tree Mews “a reasonable measure”.

The minutes also record what Greene King’s side told the panel in person. The 10am start for alcohol is “not intended for everyday consumption”, but to allow events such as brunches. The basement bar would mainly be used for private functions, with no intention of regular entertainment there. Staff would bar the outside area at 11pm, put up signs and direct smokers to the front of the building.

Two months to publish

The decision was prompt. The public record of it was not. Neither document was on the council’s page for the hearing when we checked on 23 September, the day we asked Democratic Services when they would appear. The reply came on 28 September with an apology for the delay and a link to the minutes, which are marked as draft. (Licensing Hearing, 28 July 2026)

The register dates the issue of the licence document itself to 8 September. The new licence is marked “current licence” and the pub’s 2019 licence is marked superseded. (Sevenoaks District Council, premises licence tracker, SevenoaksPREM.csv)

A £1.4m refurbishment was riding on it

The application did not arrive on its own. In written submissions to the sub-committee, Greene King’s representative said around £1.4 million is to be invested in the hotel, which the submissions describe as “‘tired’ and in need of investment”, with roughly 10 to 15 further local jobs expected on top of the current staff of 24. The basement bar, part of the building but “substantially unused” for a significant period, would host small functions of up to 60 people. The submissions say the premises, which has traded as a coaching inn and hotel since the 17th century, has 18 rooms and is run by designated premises supervisor Victoria Witheridge, who has 35 years in the licensed trade. (Greene King, applicant’s outline submissions to the Licensing Sub-Committee, 22 July 2026)

None of the statutory bodies consulted stood in the way. Kent Police and the council’s environmental health team both responded with no objections, and the other responsible authorities, from child protection to trading standards, made no comment. The applicant provided a noise management plan to the council’s environmental protection officer during the consultation, and that plan is now a condition of the licence. (Committee report)

What the neighbours said

Six valid representations from residents were enough to send the application to a hearing rather than a routine grant. The objections, published with the committee papers, centred on noise from the rear terrace and garden, drinkers dispersing through the car park late at night, and what one objector called the risk of the hotel becoming “the only late-night drinking establishment in the town and a potential magnet for unsocial activity” once other pubs close. (Representations at Appendix F to the committee report)

One resident who overlooks the car park and garden wrote that “we have tolerated noise levels with the existing hours for some 20 years, we object to any change”. Another argued that music would carry regardless of being indoors: “The Kings Arms is a Grade II Listed Building, so the windows do not retain the sound, plus in warmer weather the windows and doors will be open.” Several asked, if the variation were granted, for conditions requiring doors and windows to stay shut during entertainment, the outside areas to be closed and cleared late at night, and noise to be monitored. On the second and third of those they got what they asked for.

The applicant’s answer

Greene King’s submissions pushed back on the migration argument, saying the neighbouring bar Frankie’s already has the benefit of a licence to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays and that the George and Dragon opposite is permitted to remain open until 1am every day of the week, whatever hours those premises actually choose to keep. One objector had stated the George and Dragon currently opens 8am to 11pm Monday to Saturday. (Applicant’s outline submissions; Appendix F)

On noise, the submissions said the application does not seek to extend use of the rear terrace at all, and committed to clearing the external areas of customers, with no alcohol consumption outside, after 11pm. The basement bar has no windows “from which noise escape could emanate”, and at ground floor level doors and windows would stay closed during entertainment except for people coming and going. At closing time the front door onto Market Square is locked, with returning hotel guests using the rear entrance. The submissions added that none of the objectors had complained to the current management team about the day-to-day running of the hotel.

What it means for residents

On the brewer’s own account of the two pubs nearest to it, the middle of Westerham now has a third premises licensed to 1am at weekends, and the Kings Arms is the one with a hotel behind it, so service to residents and their guests sits outside the 1am ceiling. Against that, the conditions give neighbours three things the old licence never carried: a bar on amplified music at the front of the building after 11pm whatever the entertainment hours say, an outside area that has to be empty by 11pm, and a phone number for the duty manager. The noise and dispersal plans have to be reviewed every year, which is the hook for raising it again if the reality does not match the paperwork.

Both the applicant and anyone who made a representation could appeal to the magistrates’ court within 21 days of being notified of the decision in writing. (Committee report) The register records the varied licence as the current one for the premises.

Future licensing applications across the district appear on the council’s public licensing register, which is updated to the end of the previous working day; our report on the Fleur De Lis licence application in Leigh explains how commenting on a licence application works and what counts as a relevant objection. Greene King’s investment here is a change of direction locally for the brewer, which put another of its historic Kent pubs, the Fleur De Lis in Leigh, up for sale in 2025. For what is open across the district now, see our guide to the best pubs in Sevenoaks and its villages.

Sources

• Sevenoaks District Council, public licensing register entry, premises licence 26/02279/LAPRE, Kings Arms Hotel, Market Square, Westerham
• Sevenoaks District Council, premises licence tracker (CSV), extracted 23 September 2026
• Sevenoaks District Council, superseded premises licence 19/01183/LAPRE, Kings Arms Hotel
• Sevenoaks District Council, Notice of Determination, 26/02279/LAPRE, dated 31 July 2026
• Sevenoaks District Council, Licensing Hearing draft minutes, 28 July 2026
• Sevenoaks District Council, Licensing Hearing, 28 July 2026, agenda and reports
• Sevenoaks District Council, committee report: application to vary a premises licence, Kings Arms Hotel, Market Square, Westerham
• Representations, Appendix F to the committee report
• Applicant’s outline submissions, Kings Arms Westerham, TLT LLP for Greene King, 22 July 2026
• The Licensing Act 2003 (Hearings) Regulations 2005, regulation 26
• Sevenoaks District Council, public licensing register

Image: The Kings Arms Hotel, Market Square, Westerham by Paul Farmer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph. The photograph shows the hotel before the refurbishment the brewer has promised.