Club wins extension to drinking hours

TOPCROFT Social Club has won an extension to its hours for serving alcohol - despite opposition from neighbours.

The club will also be allowed to remove the noise limiter when it is playing music, it was announced yesterday.

The hours for serving alcohol on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights have now been moved from 11pm to midnight, and the noise limiter, described as an “onerous condition” by club secretary Tim Francis, will be removed.

Mr Francis said that the limiter was only imposed because of concerns about noise from a marquee at special events, not from the club buildings, and that these marquee events must be separately licensed in any case.

He added that the club was “anxious to be part of the community” and did not want to inconvenience its neighbours.

The issue was considered by South Norfolk Council's licensing committee on Tuesday, with any other details to be announced in the decisive letter to the club next week.

Five neighbours had backed the request by the cricket and social club in Topcroft, near Bungay, and only one has objected.

Supporters had described the club as “the heart of the village”, and the only community facility it has left, and said it does not cause a nuisance.

However Mr and Mrs Mulcahy, whose house backs onto the sports field, said in a letter to the Licensing Team at South Norfolk District Council that the extension is “completely unnecessary” and that it would further disrupt their lives.

They wrote that the noise inhibitor was “absolutely necessary” because the pavilion is a wooden structure and does not hold sound.

Mr Mulcahy said: “I've got no objections to the social club but when they do parties there they keep me awake.

“It's not just the music - when they leave the club I can hear the doors slamming and even people who walk up and down the road.

“But we've got to accept it now. It's hard when you're on your own.”

Mr Mulcahy also complained that the club is mainly used by people from outside the village.