OPPONENTS of a scheme to create a nightclub in a residential area of Tavistock are ?shocked and disappointed? that planning officers have given support to the proposal. West Devon Borough Council?s planning committee will discuss the application by Tavistock Community Church next Tuesday with a recommendation on the table to grant permission for temporary consent for a year. But the recommendation could be overturned by councillors. Concerns have been raised by the council?s environmental health department about the potential noise from patrons accessing and exiting the premises, despite a number of conditions offered by the applicants to overcome these problems. Forty-seven letters of objection to the nightclub at King?s in Pixon Lane have been submitted to the planning authority, and three in support. Residents have employed a solicitor to fight their case who will speak on their behalf at the meeting next week. John Waft, of Crelake Care Ltd, which runs Crelake House Residential Care Home, is convinced the club will spell the end of the business which has been providing care for the elderly for 28 years. Nightclub goers will have to walk or drive past the care home to get to and from the premises. He said: ?It may be a temporary consent for a year, but in that year the damage could be completely done. ?Our reputation will be lost, people will remove their grandparents and this place will close. ?It is an absolute disgrace to allow a nightclub on the doorstep of an elderly people?s home which has been here for a very long time.? Mr Waft said if the proposal went ahead environmental health would be in the front line when he made his daily complaints about noise and vandalism: ?We are talking about quality of life, peace to live in and peace to die in ? are the planners willing to sacrifice all of that?? Borough council ward member for Tavistock South Ted Sherrell said: ?I am shocked and bitterly disappointed at the planning officer?s recommendation, albeit for one year initially. ?In the report a host of concerns are voiced by West Devon?s environmental officers just half of which are surely sufficient to make the recommendation a simple refusal. ?I fear that once King?s opens as a nightclub it will remain as such for a very long time to come and the quality of life of residents of all ages in the area will be severely blighted as a consequence.? Crelake resident John Bradbury said he was glad the concerns of the residents had been raised in the report and conditions had been put in place to try to alleviate them, but hoped the final decision would be against the scheme. Although the environmental health department has not raised a formal objection, it has stated that it is not convinced that the conditions, such as erecting barriers to provide a walkway and video cameras to monitor patrons leaving, would be totally successful in preventing noise disturbance to neighbouring residential properties. Planning officers said it was very difficult to make a judgement on the issues of noise disturbance and the only real way of assessing the effectiveness of the measures put in place was to see the nightclub in operation. ?It is proposed to grant a temporary consent as this would give applicants ample opportunity to demonstrate that the club could operate without causing detriment. If they cannot do this and it does cause problems then permission need not be renewed,? said officers. It was noted that a premises license would need to be obtained to operate a nightclub and this would also deal with people leaving the site. It could also be revoked if there were complaints. Tavistock Community Church has made the application because it says it is trying to address the problem of young people having nothing to do at the weekends now the Crown nightclub has closed.
