Scalford Hall Hotel has to re-apply for alcohol and entertainment licence

A hotel near Melton which closed for a week earlier this year after its operating company went into administration has had to re-apply for its licence to sell alcohol and host live music and plays.
Scalford Hall Hotel, near Melton EMN-180529-153832001Scalford Hall Hotel, near Melton EMN-180529-153832001
Scalford Hall Hotel, near Melton EMN-180529-153832001

Melton Council’s licensing committee will decide next week whether to grant a premises licence to Scalford Hall Hotel, which reopened in January and saved the jobs of 35 members of staff.

Administrators allowed a new management company to run the business but the licence to sell alcohol lapsed with the change of operator.

A report to go before the licensing panel, which sits on Tuesday morning, states: “The new management were made aware that as no interim authority notice was applied for within 28 days of going into administration that there was no licence in force at the premises and no licensable activity could take place.”

Six neighbouring residents have written to the council complaining about the late night noise at the hotel, as part of a consultation exercise ahead of the licensing meeting.

Much of the noise is said to take place in and around a marquee, which has a capacity for up to 500 guests.

Carolyn Thompson insisted that the terms of the previous licence be more rigorously enforced after highlighting excessive noise from live bands and also suggesting that music should not be allowed in the marquee and should instead be confined to a room inside the main building.

Another commenter said people leaving the venue often shouted and stopped to urinate, live music could be heard over the sound of their television and that livestock was scared by the noise.

Irene Jones, who has lived in the area for 30 years, said she had complained in recent years up to three times during every late night event at the hotel.

She wrote to the licensing commitee to complain about ‘drunken people staggering around the grounds, shouting, swearing, arguing, being sick, all totally unsupervised or restricted due to the fact that the boundary fences belonging to the hall and provate property are now non-existent, broken or in a very bad state’.

The 1st Long Clawson Scouts also made a representation to complain that youngsters staying at the nearby Holwell Pastures campsite were often disturbed while sleeping by noise from late night entertainment at the hotel.

A report from the council’s environmental health department, to be considered by the licensing panel, said it had received a number of noise nuisance complaints about the hotel in recent years.

The council said it had established a noise control strategy with the business with an acoustic sound limiter to be used in the marquee during events and that this should continue to be enforced.

The department is recommending to the committee that any external licence granted should be restricted to the marquee and two paved terraces adjacent to the hall and use of them for night entertainment should be restricted to midnight and 11am, respectively.

General manager Barry Clarke applied for a new premises licence in March, requesting to serve alcohol from 10am to 2am and late night refreshemnents between 11pm and 2am.

The three-star hotel, which has 81 bedrooms and nine conference rooms, also wants permission to host plays, films, live and recorded music, both indoors and outdoors, up to 1am.

In his application, Mr Clarke says noise levels are monitored up to 90db during events, that staff are trained to arrive and leave the premises quietly and no drunk and disorderly behaviour from guests is tolerated on the premises.

Nicola Layland and Carl Faulds of Portland Business Support and Advice were appointed as joint-administrators of the hotel company on January 2 and they allowed a six-month licence with a new operator to trade the business whilst they established if a sale as a going concern was possible.

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