Garden Pub Closed Down

Pub found in Chatham garden closed down by council

A bogus barman who built a Swiss chalet at the bottom of his garden and turned it into a pub has been ordered to remove it.

Dean Goodearl, 23, gave the chalet its own bar, complete with optics for spirits and a Fosters and John Smiths beer pump connected to barrels outside.

It had a dartboard, a pool table, a plasma TV screen, a one armed bandit and even a light effect disco ball hanging from the ceiling.

The pub was divided from Mr Goodearl’s terraced house at Pimpernel Way, Chatham, by a boarded fence and people could gain access to it from its own gate and pathway.

The 8mx6m wooden chalet has ornately framed Georgian style windows and double doors onto a wooden verandah. There was even a smokers’ bin on the verandah so that those that wanted to light up could do so outside.
 
It first came to the notice of the council during a multi-agency raid last year when it was found it was being used as a pub.  
 
Medway Council’s officers, who worked closely with Kent Police in Medway, then served an Enforcement Notice on Mr Goodearl in January.

This ordered him to take down the building and to stop operating a pub on the piece of land at the end of the back garden.

Mr Goodearl appealed against the notice to the planning inspector and said that the chalet was only ever used by himself and his close family after they went banger racing.
 
But he lost his appeal and the inspector upheld the notice, giving Mr Goodearl six weeks to remove the building and the fence.

Now he must take both down by 29 September or face further legal action.