A CONTROVERSIAL nightclub plan for Tavistock has been withdrawn The proposal by Tavistock Community Church for a 500-capacity nightclub at King?s in Pixon Lane was due to be discussed this week by West Devon Borough Council?s planning committee. It is understood the application has been temporarily withdrawn for legal reasons and that it will be resubmitted at a future date. Forty-seven letters of objection to the nightclub proposal were submitted to the planning authority and three in support. Planners had recommended the application be given temporary consent for a year to give the community church ample opportunity to demonstrate that the club could operate without causing detriment. With its positioning in a residential area, environmental health officers raised concerns about potential noise from clubgoers accessing and exiting the premises, despite a number of conditions offered by the applicant to overcome these problems. Tavistock Community Church had proposed to erect barriers to provide a walkway, install video cameras to monitor people leaving the club and issuing lollipops ? claimed to be a proven method of keeping people quiet. Crelake House Residential Home was mentioned in the planning officer?s report as being one of the properties which would be most affected by the proposal. Club patrons would have to walk or drive past the care home to get to and from the premises. Managing director of the home John Waft said it would be a disgrace to allow a nightclub on the doorstep of an elderly people?s home which had been there for 28 years. Quoted in the Times last week Mr Waft said in a year the reputation of the home would be lost, people would remove their grandparents and the place would close. He said this week he was ?absolutely delighted? the plan had been withdrawn. ?I would like to see somewhere for the youth of Tavistock to go and I would like to help but this is the wrong place,? he said. He said the proposal may well come up again in six months? time but he hoped that a second nightclub application for Wilminstone Quarry would be approved in the meantime.
