Council noise officers want outdoor music banned at the Rising Sun and its beer garden shut at 9pm. Kent Police backs the review; the pub says it goes too far.
The council’s own noise team has asked for tough new limits on the Rising Sun in Twitton, near Otford. A licensing sub-committee will decide on Tuesday 27 October. The papers for the hearing were published this week. (Sevenoaks District Council, Licensing Hearing, 27 October 2026)
The papers also record that the pub may be about to close. A council officer who visited on 6 October wrote that she was told the tenancy had been handed back to the landlord and the pub would close from 17 October. She added that this “may change the outcome of this review”. The pub has made no public announcement that we could find. (Environmental Protection further comments, Appendix 1)
Who asked for the review, and why
The council’s Environmental Protection team applied for the review on 7 September. It cites two licensing objectives: preventing public nuisance and preventing crime and disorder. (Committee report)
The team says it has dealt with complaints about noise, anti-social behaviour and the burning of waste at the pub since 2022. Its evidence includes:
- recordings sent in by neighbours through the Noise App, one of music still playing at 11.14pm
- a recording of a fight on the premises between 11.34pm and 11.52pm, in which the word “cocaine” can be heard
- a council noise recorder placed inside a neighbouring home
- the nearest house standing less than 10 metres from the beer garden
Community Protection Warnings were served on 6 August. The team says the noise did not improve afterwards. It lists live music on 14, 16 and 31 August and on 20 and 25 September.
The council’s figures show background levels of around 35dBA on a quiet evening. During one July event it measured an average of 57dBA inside the neighbour’s home, peaking at 73dBA. In August and September readings reached 75 to 85dBA, which the team calls “extremely loud”.
What the council wants
The team asks the sub-committee to:
- remove the designated premises supervisor
- strip the pub of the automatic right to host live and recorded music between 8am and 11pm
- ban amplified music and speech outside
- close the beer garden to customers at 9pm
- require a noise management plan, a noise limiter, sound checks and closed doors and windows during music
- require CCTV kept for 31 days and an incident book
Kent Police has made a representation in support of the review. Because of its nature, the council says it must stay private.
The pub’s side
The current licence holder has replied at length. The reply says the pub does not dismiss the concerns and is willing to work with the council and residents. It argues the evidence mixes up the pub’s own customers with outsiders who use the car park after closing.
It describes two incidents in detail:
- in early June, a group who had not been in the pub confronted customers after closing; staff told everyone to leave, were attacked and called the police
- on 29 August, over an hour after closing, staff were woken by young men doing wheelspins in the car park, told them to go, were abused and called the police
It says outdoor music usually ends at about 10pm. The pub offers its own package, including a noise management plan, a 10pm finish for outdoor amplified music, sound checks, a complaints log and CCTV of the car park. It asks the sub-committee to reject a blanket ban on outdoor music, which it says would make the garden “commercially impracticable” for a very small rural pub.
The reply also says the landlady fell critically ill in August, while the pub was being asked for a noise plan. She died on 8 September, the day the review notice went up. The council’s report confirms her death and that the licence was transferred to a family member, with effect from 18 September.
Who else has had a say
Seven people wrote in support of the pub, several of them customers of 30 years or more. One writer, a local councillor of ten years, says that the pub has been trading for nearly two hundred years and is the only public amenity in Twitton.
Cllr Irene Roy, the district councillor for Otford and Shoreham, wrote in support of the residents. She says she did not witness the incidents herself. She says the evidence from Environmental Health and Kent Police shows the concerns are “genuine, longstanding and deserving of careful consideration”.
What happens next
The sub-committee meets at 10.30am on Tuesday 27 October in the Council Chamber, Argyle Road. It can:
- change the licence conditions
- remove a licensable activity
- remove the designated premises supervisor
- suspend the licence for up to three months
- revoke it
Kent Police has also objected to the transfer of the licence, and the report says that is likely to be heard the same day. Any party can appeal the decision to the magistrates’ court within 21 days.
What it means for residents
The hearing is in public. You can follow the papers on the council’s meeting page. Other new licence applications across the district are in our weekly planning and licensing roundups.
Sources
- Sevenoaks District Council, Licensing Hearing, 27 October 2026, agenda and papers
- Committee report, Application for review of premises licence: The Rising Sun
- Appendix 1, review application and Environmental Protection evidence
- Appendix 2, representations
- Appendix 3, current premises licence
Image: The Rising Sun, Twitton, photo by Chris Whippet, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph and Wikimedia Commons. Chart by Sevenoaks Online.
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