A private members’ club in Cookham has faced criticism over ‘unacceptable’ noise caused by live events.
The Odney Club, in Odney Lane, is seeking approval from the Royal Borough to make a change to its licence which will require the licence holder to have a noise management plan for any outdoor event.
The private members’ club includes hotel rooms as well as conference and meeting rooms.
But the club – which is a part of the John Lewis Partnership – is best known for its live music events.
John Lewis currently has a licence for The Odney Club to run these events, but the company is looking to make a change to one of the licence conditions.
All businesses need to apply for a premises licence to their council to be allowed to sell alcohol or provide regular entertainment.
The licence holder needs to follow four conditions under the council’s licensing policy: ensuring public safety, preventing public nuisance and crime and disorder, and protecting children.
Currently, the club’s licence states that noise arising from the club, including live or recorded music, films and videos, ‘shall not be played’ at a level which ‘gives rise to public nuisance’ to neighbouring properties.
The new proposed condition sets out that the club will instead need to have a noise management plan for any outdoor event, which would follow the code of practice for Environmental Noise Control at Concerts.
But at a Cookham Parish Council meeting on Tuesday (January 6) councillors remained sceptical of the proposed change and said it is not ‘strict enough’ to avoid public nuisance.
Parish councillor Mark Howard (Cookham Dean) said: “No one is against the club or anybody else having events and music.
“But it’s about being friendly to your neighbours and considerate to your neighbours and at the moment, [The] Odney [Club] does not seem to have accepted that their events are starting to cause problems.”
Cllr Howard added that changing the licence allows the club to ‘avoid the problem’.
A resident, speaking during the meeting, also objected to the proposed change in the licence and said the level of disturbance to neighbours is ‘not acceptable’.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), a John Lewis Partnership spokesperson explained that a Royal Borough environmental health officer requested a variation to one of the licence’s conditions to ‘give more clarity to all parties’.
The spokesperson added: “We were very happy to make this amendment.”
However, Cookham Parish Council ultimately agreed to lodge an objection against the licensing variation with the Royal Borough.
The Royal Borough will then make the final decision on whether or not to approve the change.
Residents can submit their comments about the licensing variation application until January 19.
