Bar crawl venue wants to admit more customers

Councillors have been urged to reject an application from a Leeds bar which would allow it to admit more people taking part in one of the country's biggest pub crawls.

The owners of Taylor's Sports Bar & Grill want to replace their existing licence with one that would allow them to serve alcohol on the first floor, meaning they could serve more people including those participating in the Otley Run pub crawl.

The application has received objections from residents, councillors and West Yorkshire Police, while rugby league club Leeds Rhinos are among those to have offered their support.

Leeds City Council's licensing sub-committee will decide on the plans later.

The 19-stop pub crawl has been a part of student life in Leeds for decades but now sees about 4,000 people take part every Saturday.

While it continues to grow in popularity, some people feel it is out of control and have called for steps to limit its growth.

West Yorkshire Police claimed staff at Taylor's directed people who were "in an intoxicated state" to cross the "busy" road to visit the venue.

In a letter to the licensing committee, a police spokesperson said "unmanageable crowds" had gathered outside the bar, "causing a nuisance to local residents and their families, contributing to making the central area of Headingley feel unsafe and unusable".

The council's Environmental Health Services team said the venue had not provided enough information about how they intended to prevent public nuisance.

Taylor's has previously attracted complaints about noise and crowds, according to a council report.

The bar opened in 2023, replacing a café, and has been using temporary event notices, known as TENs, to use the upstairs space.

According to several letters submitted in support of the application, the upstairs area - known as the Local Heroes Lounge - had been used as a space for various functions.

In a letter of support, a spokesperson for Headingley-based Leeds Rhinos said the bar was used by players from its rugby league and netball teams and had become "an ideal [place] to socialise and engage with other sports fans who live locally".

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