From the East Kent Mercury, 6 March 2024. By Sam Lennon.

Proposal revealed for new music bar.

A new music bar is set to revive a “forgotten” part of town and give up-and-coming bands a chance to take to the stage.

Plans have been submitted for a venue in Snargate Steet, Dover, which will serve drinks named after rock tracks such as Iron Maiden’s Trooper and Motorhead's Road Crew.

Some neighbours are concerned about the potential noise levels and issues with parking - but bosses behind the proposals say they want to help “bring business back to the area”.

If permission is granted, the new bar would play both live and recorded music in styles such as punk, rock, metal, ska and goth. The application reveals it would be called The Dracula Parrot.

The venture is listed as coming from a Folkestone-based company The Dracula Parrot Ltd and would be its first such enterprise.

Director John Biggs said: “We are trying to set up an alternative venue where local bands can play their original material.

“It would be a small venue for up-and-coming bands like The Marquee used to be in central London.

“We also feel Snargate Street has become a forgotten area when it was once a main thoroughfare with several pubs. So we want to help bring back business to the area.”

The company put in a planning application to Dover District Council last month.

It is seeking opening hours of 11am to midnight on Mondays to Saturdays and midday to 10.30pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Music would be performed in a warehouse behind the shop front.

The venue, 111.70sq m (1,202 sq ft) in size, would replace an antique shop called Little Puffin Vintage, which closed last March.

The application has so far drawn four objections on the council’s planning portal with six supporting comments.

Writing in response to the application, Robin Burkhardt said: “The building is not big enough for a music venue.

“There is no parking in this area.

“The building is surrounded by residential flats and in which case would need to be soundproofed.

“Although Snargate Street needs new businesses I feel as a resident that this is not something that would be recommended there.”

Neighbour Gareth Pearce wrote on the portal: “There are very few parking spaces currently in Snargate Street. The residents and businesses there have very limited parking and this proposed new bar will only add to an already desperate problem.

“When the Masonic Lodge and "Bluebirds" Function Rooms (on the same street) hold events/functions/parties often on the same days, it is impossible for the residents to find a place to park their cars even though we pay for parking permits.

“I also think that the noise from the bar will disturb the current residents.”

Snargate Street was once a key road in Dover, leading straight to the Western Docks and teeming with local businesses.

Its pubs included the "Arlington," billed as Kent’s smallest pub.

The entire southern side was knocked down leaving existing businesses on a slip road after the A20 expansion opened in November 1993.

Snargate Street and its wider area has been redeveloped in recent years - with Dover’s fourth Costa Coffee set to open at the end of the street later this year.

Changes have been happening particularly with the £250 million Dover Western Docks Revival development by the Port of Dover.

That has brought in new features to an area in the part of town previously used as the main crossing point to the Continent.

These include the Marina Pier which opened in 2019 and Clock Tower Square with food stalls which arrived in 2021.

The Dracula Parrot would fill the gap of lost nightlife in the immediate area.

From the East Kent Mercury, 17 April 2024. By Dan Esson.

License approved for new rock bar.

Simon Lock and John Biggs are behind the "Dracula Parrot", which they plan to open in Snargate Street, Dover, by summer.

A rock bar that bosses hope will restore a “deserted commercial backstreet” to its former glory has been granted a licence, in a major step forward for the project.

The Dracula Parrot on Snargate Street, Dover, could welcome music lovers by mid-summer, however some residents are unhappy about the prospect, fearing the noise will disturb their lives.

But the men behind the venture, business partners John named after tracks such as lron Maiden’s Trooper.

Their licence bid to serve alcohol and host live music was approved at a DDC committee meeting on April 12, despite six public objections.

The pair are now hoping their change of use application, to convert an empty shop into a bar, will be approved next.

Gareth Pearce, who lives nearby, told the committee about his concerns over possible noise coming from the courtyard, as the venue wants to put seating there.

He said: “This new bar is trying to get benches outside in their courtyard that would be very noisy, you’ll be able to hear it several gardens away no doubt about it. I’ve got nothing against people drinking and partying, just not there.”

He stressed that as Snargate Street faces the busy A20, the “only reprieve” for residents comes towards the back of their properties.

Neighbour Michelle Burkhardt, who attended with her husband Robin, expressed similar concerns, telling the licensing committee: “The front of the property is very noisy because we’ve got the A20.

“My only place of quiet is the back of my property where my bedroom and my kitchen is, and I also have a patio area Neighbour Robin Burkhardt which I spend quite a lot of time in. I like to sit out and read and relax on the patio, that’s just not going to happen-because all I’m going to have is music and shouting. I’m going to be deprived of my sleep because of the talking, the shouting, the music, the slamming of the doors opening and closing.

“I’m just not going to have my quality of life with all this going on - I’m going to feel like a prisoner in my own flat, and that’s just not fair.”

Mr Burkhardt, who runs the Old Curiosity Shop next door, said: “Snargate Street has a real problem with alcoholism and drug taking.

“Unfortunately we don’t seem to have a police force in this country anymore and we definitely don’t have it on Snargate Street - they don’t come down unless it's to arrest someone, we don’t have patrols. Why should we be adding to a problem that we already have?”

Mr Lock assured the objectors that measures would be taken to reduce noise from the bar: “We have agreed to soundproof the wall between the live music area and the courtyard at both ends, which would prevent the escape of noise when that door is open.”

Addressing fears of antisocial behaviour, Mr Lock said The Dracula Parrot would make the area safer, due to increased footfall.

“A nightlife hotspot is a safer environment than a deserted commercial backstreet,” he told the committee.

He shared his hopes that the venue will “restore it [Snargate Street] to its former glory as a vibrant hub of Dover’s community.”

Mr Lock said he and his business partner “intend to offer a different experience than the other nightlife in town”.

He went on: “We’ll be introducing a safe haven if you like for alternative music enthusiasts and providing a new venue for local bands to play their music for a live audience.

He added that bands are already “lining up to play on our premises”.

After more than half an hour of deliberation, the council’s licensing panel decided to grant the application.

The venue will be allowed to serve alcohol from 11am-10.30pm Monday-Thursday, llam-11.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and 12pm-10pm on Sundays.

They are also allowed to play recorded music indoors from 11pm-11.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and to host live music indoors for the hours alcohol is being served.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Biggs said: “This is the first hurdle we’ve got to get over, the second one being the planning.

From the East Kent Mercury, 19 June 2024. By Sam Lennon.

Councillors reject bid as opponents hail victory.

Music bar plans thrown out over noise concerns.

Plans for a new bar and music venue have been thrown out.

Planning councillors unanimously rejected the scheme for the Dracula Parrot in Snargate Street, Dover, fearing noise and disturbance for neighbouring residents.

One of the protesters, Robin Burkhardt, after Thursday night’s meeting quipped: “In the words of Monty Python, this is a deceased parrot.”

Resident Gareth Pearce said: “It’s a victory for the neighbours, the noise would have been horrendous so well done the councillors.”

The Dracula Parrot Ltd, based in Folkestone, applied for the venue, which would have a bar replacing a previous shop front area, a courtyard for smokers, and a rear warehouse for playing live music.

But Mr Burkhardt, who owns The Old Curiosity Shop antiques store a few doors away and lives in the street, told the committee: “We have the A20 to the front of our homes, dining the day with constant noise, but we can escape this at the rear of our homes.

“If this bar is allowed to open we would lose the quiet we enjoy, with people drinking and talking outside in the courtyard until late at night.

“There are at least seven families that would not be able to open their windows or sit outside. Instead, we would be forced to listen to rock music late into the night.

“For what purpose? A very ill-thought-out project.

“Above the proposed bar is a family with one pre-school child and next door a family with at least three young schoolchildren.”

He also believed the venture would take up residents’ parking spaces in the evening.

Council planning officers recommended refusal saying its closeness to homes would “result in significant harm and a loss of amenity to the surrounding residential neighbours from associated noise, vibrations and disturbance”.

Cllr Jeff Loffman told the meeting: “I’m concerned about this development, despite this being a business I would love to see in Dover. It’s a good business but in the wrong place.” He proposed to support the officer’s recommendation and all 10 planning councillors voted for this.

Simon Lock, one of the directors of Dracula Parrot Ltd, said the company would provide soundproofing.

He told the meeting: “Snargate Street has always been a commercial street, night and day. For hundreds of years, it has had a number of bars and pubs all along and those have to a great extent driven Dover’s economy.

“Its current status of having no bars is a blip in its history, which we feel is unlikely to last or to be repeated.

“We feel that Snargtae Street is ripe for returning to its former glory as the vibrant hub of Dover’s nightlife. With the ongoing regeneration of the area, this could springboard Dover into a bright future approaching the second half of the 21st century.”

A total of 13 letters of objection were sent to the council from residents, also saying they feared noise and that the site wasn’t big enough for a music venue.

Another 13 supported the application, saying there was a lack of live music venues in the town and this would regenerate the local area.

The site was granted an alcohol and live music licence by the council’s licensing subcommittee in April.

After the planning committee’s decision, Mr Lock said his company would either reapply for planning permission or seek another site in Dover.

He added: “This parrot will always rise again. We can reapply but we are also looking at other larger premises. The whole of Snargate Street is going to be back with bars and clubs whether it’s us or not.”

Regeneration plans are in place for Bench Street just a few hundred yards away.

It is being redeveloped with a £25.4 million project including Dover Beacon - a cultural, educational and business start-up centre.

The Parrot Sketch is one of the most famous scenes from TV comedy Monty Python’s Flying Circus. A customer returns to a pet shop complaining he has been sold a dead parrot and uses a range of phrases to stress this such as “demised” and “joined the choir invisible”.