A POPULAR and much-loved Wirral pub just a stone’s throw away from the Mersey is looking to expand. The Tap on Ferry Road in Eastham is overseen by Marston’s Plc who have made an application to Wirral Council to change its licence.

The pub which has been there since at least 1745 can currently stay open to half past midnight Sunday to Thursday and until 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays with alcohol sales stopping half an hour before. However, its asking for permission to expand the area covered by the licence to include outside areas and remove a number of conditions.

The conditions include that no more than 100 people can be in the building at one time including staff and performers, a minimum number of safety stewards being in place while entertainment is taking place and restrictions around flyposters. Changes are also put forward around a Challenge 25 policy and how the pub records incidents.

No issues were raised by any responsible authority which includes the council’s environmental health and trading standards departments as well as Merseyside Police. However a council report said six complaints have been received about “noise nuisance they have experienced from loud music coming from the outside area of the premises.”

The area has previously been described as beautiful and “just a quiet, nice village where everyone knows each other.” The pub is especially popular with bikers.

Landlord Bob Muir previously told the Liverpool Echo they had plans to build a bandstand as well as an outdoor cinema, adding: “It’s a beautiful pub inside and out. It’s steeped in history, steeped in tradition. You’ve got people who have loved it since they were old enough to drink who still come here.

“We don’t want to change it too much, we want to keep it the way it is because it is olde worlde. We’re joining a long line of landlords who came before us, so it’s great being part of that history.

“We’re in the middle of a country park, near to the river the views are absolutely amazing and at night the silence is deafening.

“If you wake up in the morning, it doesn’t matter what the weather is like, but particularly when the sun is out you can hear the birds, see the squirrels. It’s amazing, it really is.”

The application to vary the licence will be considered by councillors on November 25 at a licensing committee meeting.