Kettering nightclub's licence to be looked at after another complaint

A Kettering nightclub which left one neighbour with 'sleepless nights' is set to have its licence reviewed after keeping its outer doors fixed open despite noise concerns.

Decades is facing another complaint over its decision not to shut the doors, causing a 'significant' noise breakout, and failure to do so when a North Northamptonshire Council officer told them he believed it was a breach of their licence condition.

But the Carrington Street venue says they can't keep the doors shut for health and safety reasons and deny that it is a breach, claiming the licence conditions are 'open to interpretation'.

Councillors will meet tomorrow (Wednesday) to look at the licence and decide what, if any, action needs to be taken.

The meeting in Kettering will be told that environmental protection team leader Rowan Castle was in the town on the evening of January 29, investigating a complaint against a different venue, when he went to check on Decades.

In his application for a licence review, he said: "As I approached Decades, two or three door staff emerged very suddenly from the premises, grappling with a customer who appeared to punch one of them in the face.

"They fell down on the street, where they restrained the individual. I noticed that the external doors of the premises were fixed in the open position, which is contrary to a condition of their licence. However, given what was happening, I decided that it would be reasonable to wait until this incident had been dealt with so I could see if the doors were then closed, and to introduce myself to the door staff. At approximately 11.50pm, the police had arrested the aggressive customer and the door staff were no longer involved.

"The outer doors remained fixed in the open position. I then spoke to the door staff, introduced myself and explained the purpose of my visit. I advised them that the outer doors of the premises were fixed open and that this was a breach of their licence. At this time there was significant noise breakout from the premises, in my opinion largely due to the outer doors being open."

Mr Castle said he spoke to the manager, who called Decades owner James Cross, who said they would not be closing the doors. Mr Cross said the licence condition says the doors shall be kept closed ‘where practical’ and they did not believe it was practical from a health and safety point of view.

Mr Castle says that meeting one licensing objective cannot be at the expense of another and has urged councillors to 'sanction as they see fit'.

An email sent by Mr Cross to Mr Castle, published ahead of tomorrow's meeting, accused him of having an 'agenda' and said a claim he had breached the licence over different interpretations was 'very extreme and somewhat spiteful'.

The email said: "We have closed one of our entrances to the building, all to accommodate these complaints. The “lobby” area is far too small and dangerous for these doors to be permanently closed.

"If, however, this is the only way to satisfy your agenda, we can make these changes immediately, but it will mean we have no choice but to remove the internal lobby doors, thus removing that extra barrier for noise pollution, and want this recorded and recognised as I feel it will actually be counter productive to the management of said noise pollution and do not want a further review a few weeks down the line when it becomes glaringly obvious it was a bad decision.

"Claiming I am breaching a condition, which you have admitted is open to interpretation and recommending sanctions, rather than just requesting a change of the condition for clarity purposes, seems very extreme and somewhat spiteful because we disagree on what that interpretation is."

A representation from Kettering Town Council ahead of the meeting said: "The town council supports the licence call in for Decades. For some time, elected members have received regular complaints from residents about loud noise and people congregating round the site.

"There is a definite lack of interest displayed by the owners and staff in addressing this problem. For these reasons we support the action being taken."

The venue was given a community protection notice warning letter in August after a council officer witnessed 'excessive' noise. They promised to fit a sound limiting device but, when it hadn't been installed, neighbour Malcolm Maples made an application to North Northamptonshire Council asking them to take action. He said the noise was giving him sleepless nights and was having serious effects on his health.

His complaints were due to be heard at a meeting in December but North Northamptonshire Council said it was cancelled at late notice.