A controversial licensing application for a nightclub in Tenby will be discussed at a meeting next week.

The Prince of Wales, located in Upper Frog Street, has submitted a ‘variation of premises licence’ application to Pembrokeshire County Council’s licensing department to extend its hours of opening.

The application includes a variation to the hours which licensable activities occur and the hours the premises remains open to the public, with a closing time of 4.30 am touted.

Local councillors explained to Tenby Police Inspector Dan Bower at their meeting on Tuesday night that there had been a lot of ‘concern’ about the application and the premises in general, and that a special meeting had been held recently to discuss the application, with comments from residents and business owners welcomed.

“It’s an important point that the volume of letters of objection to the licence we received was quite significant from a small community,” said the Mayor, Clr. Laurence Blackhall.

Residents also outlined their concerns verbally over the existing operation of the premises, giving examples of anti-social behaviour and noise nuisance caused by customers of the nightclub.

They voiced their concern that the problem would continue longer into the early hours of the morning to the detriment of their right to quiet enjoyment should the premises be allowed to open later into the night/morning.

“Residents in that area seem to have been silently tolerating the issue and not logging complaints as often as they might have occurred,” continued Clr. Blackhall.

Clr. Will Rossiter agreed and stated that people in that area who had to put up with ‘shouting and bawling’ into the early hours of the morning, had learnt to just get used to the noise and were probably not going to bother phoning the police authorities with a complaint.

Insp. Bower said that anyone with noise concerns in the community needed to lobby the town council and PCC licensing department, to make the authorities aware of their complaints.

The county council’s licensing sub-committee is due to discuss the application on July 1 at County Hall, Haverfordwest.