THE future of a West Oxford pub has been thrown into doubt after its proposed licensing hours were reduced.

The owners of The Holly Bush Inn, in Bridge Street, had applied to reopen the pub with a 3am closing time at weekends before Oxford City Council and Thames Valley Police intervened.

An amended application was passed on Tuesday allowing the pub to serve alcohol, but only inside, and show sports events outside in its smoking lounge until midnight.

Owner Krystian Volak said that for the pub to survive it may need more hours.

He said: “The pub has been losing money and it continues to lose money when it’s closed.

“We have to look at whether that pub in that area is actually viable for business. For it to work, we need longer hours. We need more people there and they need to be drinking for longer.

“This seems to be in opposition to what people want in a residential area – it might work in the city centre.”

A decision on whether a marquee housing a smoking lounge can continue to operate is pending with the council.

An initial application was refused because of the marquee’s “mass, bulk, height and appearance” and also because noise from within would impact on the largely residential area.

Mr Volak said the thinking behind the shisha lounge was to offer something different to increase numbers but it was looking increasingly unlikely that it would continue.

Oxford City Council’s licensing and gambling acts casework committee agreed to allow the licensing application at a meeting on Tuesday.

The smoking lounge – called Aywa Lounge – has already been operating for about six weeks outside the closed pub, as smoking shisha is not a licensable activity.

The approved licence forbids selling or drinking alcohol in the outdoor lounge area – on the insistence of Thames Valley Police – but would see alcohol sold inside the pub.

Carole Tucker, who lives on Osney Island, said: “It makes me want to cry to be honest.

It’s not a nice smell coming from the shisha lounge at all and they will be out there longer now.

“The residents are opposed to this and the noise disturbance but it seems like we have no powers as the licence has been granted.”

At the meeting, Barbara Hammond, also an Osney Island resident, said: “We have experienced many different phases of operation at the Holly Bush and would question whether it is viable for a pub. We have to work with the smoke and smells, which I don’t particularly like."