Southbound, the bar in Leamington's railway arches, has permission. Customers out by midnight, outdoor seating shut at 10.30pm, noise work required first.
Updated 24 September 2026. Warwick District Council has granted planning permission for Southbound, the bar in the railway arches off Neilston Street in Leamington. The Planning Committee approved it on 16 September and the decision notice was issued on 17 September. The conditions are below. The rest of this article is the preview we published on 14 September and is unchanged.
Southbound can now trade lawfully, and can expand into the empty arch next door. Three hundred and seventy-two people had written to the council in support. Six wrote to object.
That was one of the largest volumes of public support recorded on a Warwick district planning application this year.
The six conditions
The decision notice dated 17 September grants consent for the change of use from light industrial to a wine bar and entertainment space, together with alterations to the frontages, part retrospective. Four of the six conditions are about noise.
- The permission cannot be used until the noise work is done. The development cannot be used until the mitigation measures in the Sound Licensing Limited noise impact assessment of 8 June 2026, revision 2.0, are completed in full, and they must be maintained in perpetuity.
- Customers in from 9am to midnight Monday to Saturday, and noon to 10pm on Sunday. No customers on the premises outside those hours.
- Outdoor seating closes at 10.30pm on any day.
- No external speakers. No sound amplification or tannoy system on any external wall or roof or anywhere in the open land on the site, and no amplified live or recorded music played outside the premises.
- Work must begin within three years.
- The development must follow the site location plan and approved drawings 1200.003A and 1200.001D, submitted on 27 July 2026.
The noise conditions are all imposed under Policy BE3 of the Warwick District Local Plan 2011-2029, to keep noise from the building at a level that does not unacceptably disturb nearby homes.
Two further objections were registered on the day of the meeting, both from Leamington addresses. The committee’s update report also records an objection arguing the opposite case: that the outdoor seating condition would push drinkers inside and produce unacceptable noise for nearby residents.
Eight further support comments came in. The grounds recorded are that the bar supports the local economy, is an appropriate re-use of a building, and contributes to the vitality of the town centre. Environmental Health provided an updated response explaining its reasoning for the 10.30pm outdoor seating restriction.
The preview we published on 14 September follows.
What is actually being decided
The application covers Railway Arch 11 and 12, Victoria Business Centre, Neilston Street, CV31 2AZ. The applicant is Charlie Victor Limited, and the report names the business as Southbound.
It is part retrospective. Unit 12 is already trading as a bar and entertainment space without planning permission. Unit 11 next door is vacant, its light industrial use having ceased. The application asks to regularise Unit 12 and expand into Unit 11 as an enclosed venue space, with the two operating together.
It also covers:
- an outdoor seating area on the small forecourt in front of the units
- weatherboard cladding and glazed doors on the frontages
The formal change of use is from light industrial to a wine bar and entertainment space in the Sui Generis category. The last planning record of any note on the site is from December 1984, when continued light industrial use was granted.
372 for, 6 against
The report sets out the public response plainly.
372 support comments, on these grounds:
- regeneration of empty units
- cultural benefits to the community and a contribution to the local economy
- support for an independent business
6 objections, on these grounds:
- amenity concerns and noise
- the night-time economy and footfall
- air quality and public health exposure
- parking and traffic
Every statutory consultee came back without an objection. Royal Leamington Spa Town Council did not object. Nor did Warwickshire Police, Warwickshire Fire and Rescue, or the council’s own Environmental Health team once its conditions were met. Network Rail did not respond at all.
The town council’s position carries some context in the report: officers note it also supported a neighbouring bar application, for what it called the positive and diverse contribution to the local night-time economy.
The noise question, and how close the houses are
This is not a case of objectors imagining a problem. The report is candid about it.
The nearest homes, on Baxter Court, are less than 5 metres away. Environmental Health has confirmed that the light industrial unit has been subject to noise complaints. And the noise mitigation scheme has not yet been installed, despite the bar already operating.
Amplified music is central to the business, which the report says makes it different from the other arches. Environmental Health objected at first, because the application arrived without the evidence to judge it. The applicant then commissioned a Noise Impact Assessment from Sound Licensing Limited, and revised it once at the officer’s request to account for quieter evening background sound levels. The version now relied on is dated 8 June 2026.
The enclosed venue space proposed in Unit 11 is, in the report’s words, specifically designed to address the noise problems identified with the unit already operating.
Officers also weigh the cumulative effect. Neilston Street has filled up over the last few years: the arches now hold a gym and a microbrewery, and a cafe and a pizzeria have recently opened in units 18 and 19 opposite. The report accepts that residents there “would have previously experienced a quieter standard of amenity during the evening and nighttime” before those changes of use.
The hours the conditions would set
If councillors follow the recommendation, six conditions apply. Four of them control noise.
| Condition | What it does |
|---|---|
| 3 | The venue cannot be used until the noise mitigation in the June 2026 assessment is installed in full, and it must be maintained |
| 4 | No external speakers, amplification or tannoy anywhere on the building or the site, and no amplified music played outside |
| 5 | Customers on the premises only between 9am and midnight Monday to Saturday, and noon to 10pm on Sunday |
| 6 | Nobody on the outdoor seating after 10.30pm, any day |
Officers call the 10.30pm outdoor curfew a reasonable compromise. They acknowledge that other town centre premises are allowed longer outside, but argue Neilston Street is different: a former light industrial street on the edge of the town centre, with small units that would not historically have drawn the public in the evening at all.
One point the report makes for anyone living nearby: planning permission would not stop Environmental Health monitoring noise, acting on a complaint under statutory nuisance, or asking for a review of the premises licence.
Parking: no spaces, and no way to enforce
The application provides no off-street parking at all.
Officers say they have visited the area repeatedly for other applications and found that capacity in Neilston Street is at times limited. They also make an unusually frank admission about why nothing can be done:
- the street is not publicly owned
- there are no parking restrictions on the frontages of the arches
- so while vehicles should be parked responsibly, that “cannot be enforced within this short section of private land”
The argument for accepting it is that the site is in the town centre, reachable on foot and by bike, close to several bus stops, and near the Court Street public car park. The council’s own parking standards allow below-standard provision in a highly accessible town centre location, which this is.
What it means for you
If you live on Baxter Court or Camberwell Terrace, the conditions are the substance here. The midnight closing, the 10.30pm outdoor curfew and the requirement to install the noise mitigation before the venue is used are the things that would be enforceable, and none of them currently applies.
If you drink there, or want to, the practical effect of approval is that the bar becomes lawful and can expand into the arch next door, with fixed closing times attached for the first time.
The committee met at 6pm on Wednesday 16 September at the Town Hall in Royal Leamington Spa, and the meeting was livestreamed on the council’s YouTube channel. Councillors were not bound by the recommendation and could have refused, deferred, or approved on different terms. They approved it as recommended.
The application is W/25/0993 on the council’s planning register. The same meeting also decides the Lidl store proposed at Heathcote Lane in Warwick. We track applications across the district on our Leamington planning news page.
The public response, in one chart
Sources
- Warwick District Council Planning Committee, meeting of 16 September 2026, for the agenda and the published reports.
- Officer’s report on application W/25/0993, Item 6, Planning Committee 16 September 2026, for the recommendation, the description of the units, the 372 support comments and 6 objections, the consultee responses, the noise assessment, the distance to Baxter Court, the parking assessment and all six conditions. Published as part of the agenda at the link above.
- Application W/25/0993 on Warwick District Council’s planning register, for the application documents.
- Planning Committee, Warwick District Council, for the venue, the livestream and the 10am deadline to register to speak.
- Decision notice for W/25/0993, dated and dispatched 17 September 2026, on the application’s documents tab, for the grant of planning permission and the wording of all six conditions, including the 09:00 to 00:00 Monday to Saturday and 12:00 to 22:00 Sunday hours, the 22:30 outdoor seating limit, the ban on external speakers and amplified music, and the requirement to complete the noise mitigation in the Sound Licensing Limited assessment of 8 June 2026, revision 2.0, before the development is used.
- Summary of Decisions, Planning Committee 16 September 2026, published by Warwick District Council, which records that the application was approved in accordance with the conditions set out in the report. The council states on the face of that document that it is a summary and not the formal minutes.
- Update report to Planning Committee, 16 September 2026, for the Environmental Health response on the 22:30 outdoor seating condition, the eight further support comments and the one further objection.
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