THE landlords of a Hereford pub say there are looking ahead after re-opening last week.

The Grapes, on Church Street, opened its doors under Sonia and Gary Caldwell in February this year. It came following a lengthy closure of the 16th century pub.

But the couple, from Ireland, had to close up after concerns regarding the licence were raised by Herefordshire Council's licensing department.

However, last week, they were given the go-ahead to receive the premises licence and are now looking ahead to the future.

Sonia Caldwell said: "We are delighted. It was a bit of a hard couple of months trying to get everything organised but we are just delighted to have a little piece of Ireland back open in Hereford and hopefully customers will come back and support us."

The couple plan to have live music at the pub every Saturday night and traditional Irish music every other Thursday.

Herefordshire council said: "Once the applicant is notified that there has been a representation and the matter is referred to members for further consideration, they are able to offer further information or clarification on matters that were raised by the responsible authority.

"In this case the applicants’ agent was able to provide documentation and clarification on the concerns raised by the Licensing Authority in their representation, which allowed the application to be pursued and the representation withdrawn. The licence has now been issued following receipt of information from the applicants’ agent, which satisfied the concerns detailed in the representation."