Former Monmouth Conservative Club granted new licence – but beer garden will close early

The former Conservative club in Monmouth has been granted a new premises licence which will make it easier for non-members to attend, but it will have to close its beer garden by 10pm.

The Club in Whitecross Street, formerly Monmouth Conservative Club, has been revamped and renamed to disassociate itself from the Conservative Party, after it previously struggled to attract members.

A new licence granted by Monmouthshire council will now allow non-members to enter without being signed in and will move the venue away from being a private members club for the time being.

But the licence will have a condition which will mean the venue’s beer garden must close at 10pm following objections from residents.

One objector told a meeting of Monmouthshire council’s licensing and regulatory sub-committee on Friday that neighbours “cannot tolerate” the levels of noise which they experienced during the summer.

The resident said he accepted “the good intentions” of the venue’s owners, but called for conditions to be imposed to limit noise.

“The noise in the beer garden during the summer months has been consistent and it has caused considerable distress to neighbours in the area,” the objector said.

However the applicant told the committee that the venue had received no complaints about noise until the premises licence application had been submitted.

He said CCTV and signs have been put up in the beer garden to stop noise, and that staff are told to ensure noise levels are kept down.

“We do everything we can both internally and externally to ensure that our neighbours are not inconvenienced in any way by excessive noise in the beer garden area,” he said.

The objector suggested a condition be imposed to close the beer garden at 9.30pm, but the applicant said he feared this would potentially result in problems being created outside the club.

However the applicant said the venue would be willing to close the beer garden at 10pm as “a reasonable compromise”.

Cllr Richard Roden asked whether encouraging more non-members would have any impact on any “bad behaviour”.

In response the applicant said that anybody who misbehaved would be excluded.

The meeting heard the venue was “very close to closure” before it moved away from being a private club.

But since it re-opened in May following a revamp, it has had 195 new applications for membership, while previously it only had two or three new applications.

The new licence was granted with a condition the beer garden must close at 10pm.

The licence will allow indoor sporting events, live and recorded music indoors and supply of alcohol from 8am to midnight.

The venue’s planned opening hours are midday until 11pm.