A NIGHTCLUB has been denied permission to stay open until 4am by Bournemouth council over fears noise could disturb guests staying at the new £60million Hilton hotel.

Ty Temel, the owner of Halo on Exeter Road, which was formerly St Andrew’s Church, sought consent to extend his club’s current 3am closing time by an hour on Friday and Saturdays. He also asked for its 1am closing time between Sunday and Thursday to be extended to 3am.

The application was brought before Bournemouth council’s planning board at its September meeting after Cllr David Smith, who represents the town centre, raised concerns the change could result in “excessive noise and disturbance” for nearby businesses, in particular the new Hilton hotel scheduled to open soon.

“We have spent a lot of time, a lot of hard work trying to get people like the Hilton to come and develop in the town centre,” said Cllr Smith.

“They are probably 50 yards from those premises and I wonder what effect it will have on the guests who stay in the hotel."

He then recounted an occasion he stayed at a hotel in Blackpool, which he said was located a similar distance from a nightclub as the newly built Hilton, where he could hear revellers still “making a lot of racket” at 3am in the morning.

“Personally I have no problem with 3am,” he said. “That’s the time generally clubs open to these days. It’s the 4am where we have really got to ask ourselves – do we want it?”

He added that other clubs in the area such as Sixty Million Postcards and The Lost Garden may also seek a 4am closing time if Halo had its application granted.

“What concerns me is the impact upon the people who leave the club itself,” said Cllr Smith.

“As you know from other parts such as Horseshoe Common, when everyone turns out in the middle of the night it’s a lot of racket, a lot of noise and everyone is shouting and screaming because that’s the way people are when they are full of drink.”

Cllr David Kelsey, the planning board’s chair, proposed a compromise to allow Halo to stay open until 3am seven nights a week, but denying its application to stay open until 4am at weekends.

“We have to bear in mind that future residents are going to live opposite and there are flats in the Hilton development as well,” he said.

“The longer term strategy of the council is to try and get all the nightclubs to start closing again at 3am rather than going all hours of the night.”

Cllr Kelsey’s motion was seconded by Cllr Lynda Price and passed by the board.