A PUB to which police were called twice in one evening during the World Cup has been told it must takes steps to reduce noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour in its vicinity.

Bury Council’s licensing panel was told that problems at The Sir Robert Peel, in Unsworth had been increasing for at least two years, culminating in the violent incidents on July 7.

And it has ordered landlord Steven Elliott to implement measures relating to CCTV, music volume, signage and the opening times of outdoor seating areas at the pub.

The town hall hearing was held as a result of a resident applying for a review of the pubs licence due to what he claimed had been “a massive increase in anti social behaviour and noise nuisance” since he began living in Sunny Bank Road, nearly three years ago.

The resident, who says he rarely gets more than four hour's sleep due to rowdiness and loud music coming from the pub added: “The two fights in one night during the night following the England v Sweden World Cup tie was the absolute turning point.”

And he told the committee that a  meeting residents held with Mr Elliott in June, in  a bid to address the problems, had not produced the desired results.

“I have seen no noticeable improvement from the pub to this day,” he said.

Police licensing officer PC John Caulfield also told the panel that he was "disappointed" with the poor quality CCTV footage of the disorder on July 7, which made it difficult to accurately piece together what had gone on.

Another resident also gave evidence to the meeting in support of the principal complainants concerns.

He said: “I do think that the pub is not being run as it should be. I have never had an argument with the owner, I’ve always got on well with Steve, but I don’t think he is taking the situation seriously enough.

“It’s an ongoing situation we don’t really want to be here, we understand that the pub is a business, but it has to be run in a business like manner, and the management has to be robust.”

But the Patrick Whur, representing Mr Elliott, said  that a combination of unusual events had led to the problems in July.

He said: “We had a ridiculously hot summer and, for the first time in a long time, a football team the did well in an international competition. It created a perfect storm that led to people sitting out longer and being more euphoric in an outside environment.

"It's critical to note that the two main incidents happened on the nights of England football matches."

But his claim that many of the issues were caused by people not directly linked to the pub’s customers was dismissed by the principle complainant, who said his grievances all related to incidents he had witnessed himself.

Mr Elliott is joint premises licence holder with Kirsty Maher of both The Sir Robert Peel and the Northern Crafthouse in Whitefield. Ms Maher was designated premises supervisor up until the date of the hearing, when it was agreed this role would switch to Mr Elliott.

Mr Whur said this was evidence of his serious intent to resolve the problems at the pub, as he would face possible criminal sanctions if conditions of his licence were breached.

He said: “He is going to put management controls in place to ensure the issues are dealt with to the satisfaction of the resident that make their complaints against the premises.”

A recent incident in which Mr Elliott dealt with complaints about a rowdy group at a nearby bus stop, despite them not being customers of the pub was also cited as proof of his detemination to address the pubs woes.

After the new conditions were set out, panel chair Cllr Trevor Holt told Mr Elliott: “We realise you have a business to run and we believe you can do that successfully,” adding that he had already demonstrated he had he capability to turn the pub around.