Blayds Bar: Leeds venue granted new licence after 2,700 sign petition with huge support from LGBTQ+ community

More than 2,700 people signed an online petition and dozens more wrote to the council after Blayds Bar had to apply to continue opening.

The premises, one of the city’s oldest gay bars, held a licence which lapsed when the company operating it was wound up.

A new licence was granted after councillors decided it would not add to alcohol-related disorder in the city centre.

Speaking after a licensing hearing on Tuesday, Duncan McCallum, who has run Blayds for 18 years, thanked his customers and supporters.

He said: “If it wasn’t for the LGBTQ+ community getting behind us we would not have had this result today.”

The hearing was told the company was dissolved and the licence lapsed following the death of Mr McCallum’s husband Robert Payne.

Tributes were paid after Mr Payne died suddenly in 2021, and the following year’s Leeds Pride parade was named after him. see link below

Mr McCallum was praised by 47 customers who wrote letters of support and witnesses who spoke at the hearing.

Gillian Dobson said: “Duncan’s bar is the safest bar I have ever visited. It is very much a community space for young and old.”

The bar in Blayds Yard is in a Cumulative Impact Area (CIA), deemed as being at high risk of alcohol harm by Leeds City Council.

It is also in a CIA “red zone”, where new premises licence applications face extra scrutiny.

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Ed Smith, representing Blayds, told the hearing: “We are of the view that it doesn’t add to the cumulative impact whatsoever. It is to replace a lapsed licence.

“Duncan is a fantastic operator with a long track record at this premises, in an exemplary manner.”

One public letter of objection to the new licence was received, claiming noise nuisance from customers. Mr Smith said: “It lacks evidence.”

No objections were raised by West Yorkshire Police or the council’s environmental health team.

Mr Smith said an application had been made to restore the dissolved company. If allowed, the process could mean the previous licence also being restored.

In the meantime, Blayds had been operating under temporary events licences.

There was applause from around 20 supporters at the hearing when the licence was granted.