Councillors have granted a premises licence to a 145-year-old members' club despite opposition from neighbours.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s statutory licensing sub-committee supported an application by The Pateley Club, in High Street, Pateley Bridge, at a meeting on Friday.
The club has previously operated under a club premises certificate, but had been told it needed a premises licence to continue holding functions.
The venue applied for a licence to sell alcohol and allow live and recorded music until midnight Sunday to Thursday and until 1am on Friday and Saturday, and remain open an extra 30 minutes beyond these times.
North Yorkshire Police, however, said it had received complaints about the venue over the last 12 months which it said “undermines the licensing objectives of prevention of crime and disorder and public nuisance”.
As a result, licensing officer PC Antony Lockey-Smith said North Yorkshire Police were unable to support the proposed operating hours.
Instead, he requested that the club stop serving and allowing music an hour earlier Sundays to Thursday at 11pm, and closes at 11.30pm.
These times were agreed by the club management.
The council had received representation from three people living near the club who objected to the proposed hours.
One resident said they had made more than a dozen calls to police about noise and anti-social behaviour coming from the club.
They said the disruption can continue from around 10pm until as late as 3am, compounded by loud music and customers coming and going into the early hours.
Another resident, a parent of four children, said noise from the club and its patrons regularly disrupts family life, particularly during the summer when windows are open and evenings are longer.
But in response, the club said that it tried very hard to make customers understand that it was important that they minimise noise when leaving or being outside the premises.
But it also pointed out that it was situated in the high street and there were other pubs and late-night takeaways and restaurants in the area.
The venue said it had also received complaints about late-night noise that occurred several hours after it had closed.
Licensing committee member, Councillor Kevin Foster, said the panel agreed to allow the licence with the hours agreed between the club and the police.
He added:
“The venue holds all kinds of events, birthday parties and social functions, and they’ve been open for many years, and they’ve never had any problems from environmental health and no police visits.
“The main thing was that the police were happy with the hours.”
The club told the council it needed to be able to keep holding community events, such as wakes, charity nights, christenings, and birthday parties, in order to survive.
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