Whitby's Endeavour replica has license approved

Andrew Fiddler was speaking after a day-long licensing hearing in Whitby at Sneaton Castle for his boat which is now moored in the town’s harbour.

The life-size replica is being transformed into an educational tourist attraction that will also be a restaurant and function facility on evenings.

More than 20 people, the majority of whom live close to where the ship will be berthed in Endeavour Wharf, had objected to the application, saying they feared the extra noise created from the ship.

Scarborough Council’s licensing sub-committee today granted the licence but reduced the hours in which alcohol could be sold to 11.30pm from midnight.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Fiddler said: “I am very pleased that the committee has listened to what we want to and has seen sense to grant the licence.”

Earlier in the day, Mr Fiddler had told the committee that “contrary to rumours” he was not operating a party boat.

He said: “This is not a party boat or for the stag or hen party crowd.

“It is a fine-dining experience that we are proposing.

“I have made Whitby my home, I have lived here for the last 12 years and I know the problems [of alcohol-related disorder] and it is not my intention to add to them.

“I’ve not spent £1.2million just to have a stag or hen party come in and wreck everything we’ve invested in.”

Mr Fiddler said that unless it was a pre-booked function, alcohol would only be served to people who were dining in the restaurant, which would open at 6pm after the tours of the boat had finished at 5pm.

“This is not a bar,” he added, “It’s a restaurant.”

A number of the people who objected to the licence were also present to speak against the application.

Amanda Smith said that any noise from the vessel would be “amplified” around the town.

She said: “Whitby is a bowl, the noise bounces around the harbour as clear as day.”

Another objector, Keith Blessed, took issue with Mr Fiddler saying that 150,000 people would visit the Endeavour each year.

He told the committee: “Whitby does not need any more tourists. We are full.”

In giving its judgement, committee chairman, Cllr Simon Green, said the three-person panel had found Mr Fiddler to be a “credible applicant.”

He said: “We do not believe that this is an application to open a bar, it is a fine-dining restaurant and sales of alcohol and amplified music will be confined to the lower deck.”

He said the committee also found that there would be “no noise nuisance” caused by the granting of the application.

The Endeavour replica arrived in the North Yorkshire seaside town in June after it was bought at auction by Mr Fiddler.

It is set to be transformed into an educational attraction due to open in the next two weeks. Mr Fiddler said he had already been in contact with schools about visiting the boat.

The replica, which was built in 1993, had been based in Stockton-on-Tees.

The original Endeavour was first registered as the Earl of Pembroke when she was built in Whitby by shipbuilder Thomas Fishburn in 1764.

She was built as a Whitby Cat designed to haul coal before the Navy commissioned and re-registered her as HM Bark Endeavour.