Golf club wins support for alcohol licence despite noise concerns from neighbours

Nicholas Thomas – Local Democracy Reporter

A golf club has won unanimous support for a new sales licence, despite some concerns about noise affecting neighbours.

Members of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s licensing committee have agreed to the licence at Blackwood Golf Club after hearing representations from the club, a resident, and a local councillor during a late June meeting.

The club now has permission for slightly altered alcohol sales hours on the premises, but must abide by strict conditions for outdoor drinking.

At the meeting, a neighbour told the committee he lives “harmoniously” next door to the golf club but complained that noise levels were like an “open air concert” if the clubhouse doors were open when music was playing.

Traffic

Steven Jones, a club representative, said new double glazing installed at the premises had made music no louder than “local traffic”.

He also said club members had started conducting “perimeter walks” around the boundary to ensure any noise was of a suitably low level for people living nearby.

Conditions imposed on the golf club’s new licence are designed to “address the majority of concerns” around noise, the committee heard during the June meeting.

In approving the golf club’s new licence, the committee members agreed to include those conditions, including that the club must not use the outdoor licensed area after 10pm, other than for a handful of people to use a smoking area.

No alcohol may be taken outside the clubhouse after 10pm, and the club must display notices reminding patrons to follow these rules.

The council will also require the club to continue its “perimeter walks” and to make sure any music played is “at a level so as not to cause a nuisance at the nearest residential property”.