HOTEL owners have been left with a legal bill of £22,000 after failing to overturn a council decision to strip them of a late-night alcohol licence.

The West Beach Hotel in Brighton lost a court appeal against Brighton and Hove City Council’s decision to revoke its alcohol licence in September last year.

Brighton magistrates upheld the council’s decision to revoke the licence of King’s Road hotel following a two day hearing last week stating that residents and businesses had suffered an “unacceptable level of disturbance” for more than four years.

There was a long history of complaints from residents and businesses about on-going noise nuisance from within and outside the premises.

Residents kept diaries recording incidents of noise and anti-social behaviour from the hotel bar, previously known as Cubar, and the Ammos nightclub in the basement of the building.

Tim Nichols, the council’s head of public health regulatory services, said: “This nightclub was causing a public nuisance and our environmental health officers worked closely with residents whose lives were clearly being made a misery by continuous late night disturbances.”

The magistrates’ decision means the hotel now has two standard licences until 11pm covering the hotel/bar and ground floor restaurant.