Peter and Sally Ratcliffe, who took over the hotel in December, said they were working with the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) to return live music to the beer garden.

“We hope to restore the situation to something everybody is happy with,” Mrs Ratcliffe said.

The music was stopped after OLGR and police received complaints from neighbours about noise.

Since then, a petition to return the music placed in various businesses around the town has attracted about 1500 signatures.

The Ratcliffes, who took over from Michael O’Brien, have run pubs in Sydney, Wagga Wagga, West Wyalong and Griffith.

Mrs Ratcliffe joked that they had inherited a “Pandora’s Box”.

“We have always run family-oriented hotels and we have never had dramas like this,” she said.

However, the couple is determined and optimistic.

“We want to have the ability to have live music again, and we are confident we can have it, but only on terms where nobody is bothered or offended,” Ms Ratcliffe said.

“Peter and I cannot emphasise enough our willingness to observe rules and regulations.”

The hotel has been granted an exemption for the purpose of acoustic compliance testing, and they have a noise limiter to control the decibel output.

The Ratcliffes believe the return of Saturday night music would be good for Batemans Bay, which was evidenced by the response to the petition.

“It’s not just 18-year-old ravers that are signing it,” Mrs Ratcliffe said.

“There are people of all ages, parents who are concerned about what young people are doing on Saturday night.

“We are able to provide a safe supervised environment.”

She also said she was concerned about the effect the lack of music was having on the commerce of the town.

“It is affecting other businesses in the Batemans Bay CBD and we risk losing our taxi service,” she said.