A BOWLS club in Caerphilly town has applied for an alcohol licence for its clubhouse.
Morgan Jones Bowling Club hopes to sell alcohol seven days a week, between the hours of midday and 9pm.
At a meeting of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s licensing committee, on Monday May 19, club representative Rob Cavanagh said he “envisaged” drinking at the club would be “quite limited” and mostly take place on matchdays.
The club has only applied for on-sales within the clubhouse and its veranda, with customers most likely being its own members and their matchday opponents, as well as the possibility of a small number of guests.
Several benches outside the clubhouse were not included from the application, and council solicitor Todd Rawson advised the bowls club would have to make a new request if they wanted to expand the drinking area beyond the current proposals.
Licensing manager Lee Morgan said agencies such as the police and council’s own environmental health team hadn’t offered any objections to the bowls club’s original application.
The club had “agreed all proposed conditions” to the alcohol licence, he added.
Victoria Woodland, a council environmental health officer, told the committee the proposed hours for alcohol sales were “reasonable” and were for a “seasonal operation”, with the club only requesting a licence for the period from the beginning of April through to the end of September.
One neighbour objected to the application, telling the council “supplying alcohol in the park will cause me significant nuisance”.
“There is already too much noise from the bowls club some evenings that will only be worsened by alcohol,” the objector said.
Mr Rawson asked for details of any noise complaints, and Ms Woodland said “in the past 12 months we haven’t received any”.
The objector also alleged “serving alcohol in the park, literally right in between the children’s play area and splash pad, is completely inappropriate”.
Mr Cavanagh told the committee “we don’t want anybody coming in to buy drinks and take [them] in the park”.
And Mr Morgan confirmed selling alcohol for consumption elsewhere would not be allowed within the terms of the application.
“While the club wouldn’t want to do it, they couldn’t do it either,” he explained.
Following the meeting, the committee will assess the application and publish its decision within five working days.
