Cookham wine seller bids to become bar amid mix reactions

Neighbours to Old Butchers Wine Cellar in Cookham High Street pushed back against an attempt by the store to become a bar on Tuesday.

Stratford Wine Shippers & Merchants has submitted a retrospective planning application to the borough to run a bar alongside its current retail shop and bistro operation.

At a meeting of Cookham Parish Council (CPC) on Tuesday night, neighbours raised their frustrations.

Mishcon de Reya law firm, representing Paul and Renee Harris at neighbouring Ovey’s Farm, claims the site has already been engaged in ‘unlawful mixed use’ as a wine bar and retailer.

The application would make the wine cellar ‘an effectively unrestricted drinking establishment’, they wrote.

Objectors are concerned by the possibility that permitting the change of use would mean the wine cellar could turn into something much busier and louder in the future.

These residents object particularly to the use of the back garden for bar customers, creating noise at night.

However, multiple residents have also written in support of the application, saying they have had no problems with The Old Butchers so far and wish to see it survive any economic challenges.

In its own supporting statement, the Stratfords said it has become clear over the last decade that it is ‘impossible to maintain a viable retail-only wine businesses with aggressive competition from national supermarkets and online retailers.’

Neighbours also raised concerns over alterations made to the 500-year-old Grade II-listed building – installing lights and CCTV cameras.

Cookham parish councillor Ian Wernham said he was ‘concerned’ by this and felt that CPC should not condone it.

CPC chairman Mark Howard felt that the issue was more nuanced than a simple objection by the parish council on these grounds, because of the ‘many challenges facing retail.’

The councillors concluded that, if the application is approved, they would want to see opening hours restricted to residential hours and only the front of the property used, not the back garden.

It also wants to see enforcement against any unauthorised changes to the listed building.