In a judgement against St Albans council, Mr Justice Forbes held that courts were entitled to take into consideration the fact that residents would usually know a pub was there before they moved to the area.

The garden of Jane Lockley’s new house was next to the grounds of Mokoko on Verulam Road (pictured). She complained to the council that she could hear drinkers chatting in the beer garden – a common complaint, particularly with the advent of the ban on smoking inside licensed premises.

The council’s investigation found evidence of a statutory noise nuisance and served an abatement notice. Jass Patel, who only opened the up-market spirits in April, was acquitted by the city’s magistrates in the summer.

He said at the time that Mrs Lockley had not been prepared to meet with him, and he had tried to address the issue by putting signs up, increasing door supervisors and even offering to double-glaze his neighbour’s home.

He also shut the garden at 9pm during the summer rather than at 11pm, saying: ‘We have suffered financially from shutting the garden early – people went home and the bar was empty. If we can’t use the garden, we will go out of business’.

His acquittal was challenged by the council, whose spokesman said the magistrates were wrong to conclude the defence of ‘best practicable means’ – under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 - had been established by Mr Patel.

He denied Mr Patel’s allegation that the council was picking on him rather than owners of larger city centre pubs and bars because he could not afford a protracted legal battle; the council had a duty to serve a notice regardless of the nature of the perpetrator.

Mr Justice Forbes said: ‘I am satisfied that none of the matters raised by the council had called into question the correctness of the decision reached by the magistrates’. He added that it would be too far to say Mrs Lockley had brought the nuisance on herself, but the court could take cognisance of the fact she knew the pub was there before she moved in.

He also confirmed the magistrates’ view that whilst the pub had become livelier since Mrs Lockley moved next door, it was ‘the nature of things’ that the business at licensed premises changed and noted Mr Patel’s attempts at mitigating the situation, which including reducing by half the number of people allowed in the garden and paying for double-glazing for another neighbour.

Following this decision, it will be harder for local residents to make representations against pubs and clubs to council licensing committees if the venue operated prior to them moving into the area, and the operators are prepared to offer ‘best practicable means’ to alleviate any problems.