THE landlady of a village pub ran her business without a licence until residents complained about noise, a meeting heard yesterday.

Environmental health officers visited Marie Kenny at the Three Tuns pub, in Sadberge, near Darlington, after neighbours contacted Darlington Borough Council objecting to loud music coming from the pub.

A licensing meeting yesterday was told that the officers discovered Mrs Kenny had taken over the pub earlier this year, but did not have any of the required licences transferred into her name.

Licensing officer Barry Pearson said: "When the officer went he found it did not have a public entertainment licence, drinks licence or food safety licence."

Mrs Kenny, who was applying for a public musical entertainment licence yesterday, told the meeting she had now got her liquor licence.

She said: "The reason I applied for my licence was because I wanted to do everything right, by the book."

She said she wanted the entertainment licence for discos and karaoke sessions because of demand from customers.

"Gone are the days when people are happy to go and shuffle a few dominoes in the pub," she said.

"It's very difficult trying to make a living."

A letter submitted to the council from residents listed a catalogue of instances during the summer when they said they were disturbed by noise from the pub's beer garden.

The letter said revellers leaving the pub in the early hours were making sleep impossible.

Lynn Parvin, who lives nearby, begged councillors to reject the application.

"I speak on behalf of a number of residents. We would like to strongly object to the granting of this licence because we feel it is not necessary," she said.

"It is a village pub. It is not ideal to attract lots of people from outside."

Mrs Kenny said she had used the beer garden on only three occasions during the summer and had received no complaints from residents.

The committee agreed unanimously to defer a decision on the licence until a later date.