A RESIDENT complaining about constant noise and disturbance from a Chatteris pub wants an application to change its licence turned down.

Fenland District Council’s licensing committee were due to meet yesterday (Thursday) after it was forced to hear the application for The Sportsman in Fairway because of objections from Sandra Ashley.

Lydia Payne and Steven Jeavon want to extend the licensed area to include the smoking area and a proposed beer garden with a view to allowing outside drinking.

However while six nearby residents have not raised any objections, Mrs Ashley of Fairway says noise and anti-social behaviour is making her ill. She says she has had to buy headpohones to escape the noise and to be able to hear her television.

She has kept a diary of what she feels are problems associated with the pub which until 2005 operated as a sports and social club.

In a letter to the council’s licensing officer Kim Winterton, Mrs Ashley said: “You will appreciate that my property is adjacent to the pub smoking area. The windows of my kitchen/diner and my lounge face onto this area. There is no way that I can escape the noise and listen to my television.

“If this application is granted then the noise and anti-social behaviour that I have had to cope with will become much worse. My health is now starting to suffer in as much as I have to take medication for high blood pressure.”

Miss Payne and Mr Jeavon have told Ms Winterton that the pub has been visited frequently by the council’s environmental health officer Dawn Sadler and problems highlighted by Mrs Ashley have been addressed.

Miss Payne said: “We have also received many visits from the police, mostly at peak times, on request from Mrs Ashley and they have found nothing to warrant a call out.”

She added that if the application is granted gates could be put up to close off the smoking area and beer garden completely to stop underage drinkers wandering into the area.

Ms Payne added that the application has been changed to include a closing time on drinking in the outside area to 11.30pm Monday to Thursday and 12.30am Friday to Sunday. She has also informed Mrs Ashley that there are no future bookings for 16th or 18th birthday parties to reduce the number of younger customers and noise problems.