Rugby club licence approved

Hereford Rugby Football Club has been granted a premise licence allowing it to serve alcohol and play music every night until late, despite more than a dozen strongly-worded objections from nearby residents.

Herefordshire Council’s licensing subcommittee approved the bid but required music and drinking to cease at a minute to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, rather than at half past midnight as the club had sought.

Most of the 13 objections were from residents of the Barton West residential complex next to the club’s grounds. One said: “This would absolutely shatter the peace and quiet enjoyed by local residents, and would prompt me to seriously consider selling the property I have just bought.”

Another claimed the licence “will bring more motor and pedestrian traffic to the club and at late hours, causing disturbance even after closing time”, and would “no doubt set a precedent for other venues in the area”.

Agent for the club Nick Semper told the committee that the pandemic had made it difficult to put the club on a sound financial footing.

Besides providing facilities to its members and guests, it now wished to hire out its clubhouse for other private functions, which it could not do under its current club licence, he said.

The council’s own environmental protection officers found the proposed conditions “acceptable and sufficient”, and neither the police nor any other public body had objected to the application.

This undertook not to cause a noise nuisance, to immediately comply with any request by police or other authorised person to adjust noise levels, and to restrict entertainment to the clubhouse, whose doors and windows would be kept closed after 11pm.

Semper submitted that these undertakings “should serve to allay completely the fears of the representors”.

He and rugby club representatives met some of the objectors at the club on August 6, and explained noise reduction measures at the clubhouse, and other aspects of the bid.

Their worries “seemed almost exclusively to centre on the use of temporary events notices covering events held on the club’s pitch” rather than within the clubhouse, Semper said.

“The club very much welcomed the residents’ offer to nominate one of their number to act as a liaison officer,” he added.

Committee members also visited the club on August 17.

Committee chair Coun Alan Seldon said: “Dialogue has been started with Barton West residents – that is key to successful licensing applications.”