AN OXFORD pub has been criticised for vowing to keep showing sport on outdoor TVs, despite losing a planning battle with council chiefs.

Cowley Road’s City Arms has lost a bid to keep two TVs fixed to the building and bamboo fencing.

But it could wheel the TVs out, for which it claims it does not need planning permission.

However, a planning boss said it could still fall foul of licensing laws.

Oxford City Council Green councillor Craig Simmons, whose St Mary’s Ward includes the pub, said: “We would hope that they would comply with the spirit of the planning rules.

“They should take care over the amount of noise and nuisance that the screens cause and be a bit more moderate in their use.”

The pub put the TVs and fencing up in about 2007, but was told it needed planning permission by the council last year.

It was then refused permission for the “jarring and incongruous” fencing and the “unacceptable level of noise and nuisance” from the TVs.

The owner, the Stonegate Pub Company, appealed to the independent Planning Inspectorate, which has upheld the council’s decision.

But manager George Cupit said: “Hopefully we will be able to buy brackets to wheel out the two TVs we have got.

“It is only one person who has complained.

“I can’t imagine it annoys the residents that much, otherwise we would have had more complaints.”

The firm told the inspectorate it would not need planning permission for freestanding televisions, but the hours of fixed TVs could be set by it.

But the inspectorate’s Martin Joyce said he was “uncertain” whether putting the TVs on wheels would comply with licensing laws.

The fencing is “incongruous and jarring” and the TVs would cause “material harm” to neighbours, he said in rejecting the appeal.

Divinity Road Residents’ Association and six residents objected to last year’s planning application.

Among them was Southfield Road resident Anne Hall, 72, who said: “If there was an England match I knew when they scored, because the noise would travel up. It was very noisy.”

She said of the prospect of more TV noise: “Life is too short to get worried about it. If there is a legal way around it then fair enough, good for them.”

A Stonegate spokesman said: “We are disappointed that our customers won’t be able to enjoy watching the screens while in the pub’s garden during the summer months.”

Televisions are inside the pub, she said.