A bid to turn a former Isle of Wight church into a Loungers Café & Bar, similar to Newport’s Correo Lounge, has encountered stiff resistance from residents.
Hospitality chain Loungers UK applied for a premises license to open a food and drink venue in the disused, early 20th century Cowes Methodist Church, as first reported by Island Echo.
However, the application was met with objections from 5 members of the public at a meeting of the Isle of Wight Council’s licensing sub-committee on Friday.
One critic, David Millar, said the application was ‘wrong’ on the basis of both the building and location. He said:
“I believe the noise will be considerable – I do not believe this is a typical family eating place – if so why the late hours?
“Inside they will demand music and you may call it background music – to me background music is somebody tinkling on a piano.
“This to me is heavy rock, what I hear coming from these establishments: thumping bass noise.”
West Hill Road resident Susan Brown said:
“The use proposed by the applicant is nothing like what was there before.
“There has been considerable opposition to this application in the community.
“It’s not really wanted by the community, in my view.”
Birmingham Road resident Peter Morton said:
“I still believe there is a public nuisance issue with this application.
“And despite the applications, the assertions from Loungers, this is bound to turn into another party house venue – in the same manner as most of the clubs and most of the pubs and restaurants in Cowes are used for that purpose.
“And as Susan said, yachties are quite noisy and tend to stay up late, and I don’t believe it’s going to be any different here than any of the other establishments in Cowes.
“And this is not in the high street, it’s in a residential area.”
A spokesperson for Loungers UK said:
“We recruit locally, wherever possible, so we bring benefit of employment to the town.
“We don’t create the impression that at 11pm or midnight, whenever we close, there’s going to be 200 people at a lounge and then dispersing onto the high street.
“It’s not the way a lounge operates.”
Loungers UK operates over 230 sites across the UK with two brands: The Lounges and The Cosy Clubs.
Let me guess… 90% of the opposition are pensioners who probably won’t be alive by the time it’s even been built…
I guess they’d rather just see it stay vacant and decay
Rather it be given permission than turned into a mosque!
Since when did 5 people constitute ‘stiff resistance’? Rather over egged a few NIMBYs there IE.
‘Stiff resistance’ – and yet only 5 complaints?
That seems a bit of an exaggeration.
And, isn’t this venue directly opposite the Yacht Clubs etc?
I think, if you make the decision to live in a particular area, you need to accept what’s going on already in that area and not complain that ‘yachties are quite noisy and tend to stay up late’.
“It’s not really wanted by the community, in my view.” The Community does not share your view thank you Susan so please don’t speak on our behalf. Residents need to try the one in Newport to see that it is not “thumping bass” music coming from the establishment. This will be a really lovely addition to Cowes.
If you try visiting some of there other establishments i.e Newport or at gunwharf Quays, you will enjoy a pleasant surrounding and atmosphere, no thumping bass music, or would you rather be pulled down and more housing developments ,which we be unaffordable for locals, but affordable second homes for others…
Just saying
Bet they complained about bells too
Residential area? Birmingham road, was once a busy road with a row of shops, with a cinema. Do people complain when the Duke of York have loud music? Or music at the CCYC? The people are going to keep the building, and use it to bring more money in to the town. The people who complain, would rather it be knocked down, and turned into over priced flats.
Or may be, all these people who complain etc, should have gone to church every weekend, and it wouldn’t have closed!
You don’t get any such noise from Correo Lounge in Newport & I would hear it at night as I live very near. It’s a dining/drinking laid back place. There is certainly no drum & bass!
Turn it into a kebab shop then, or a Turkish barber, Chinese restaurant, curry house, Thai restaurant… They’re the businesses that succeed now, partly due to the whiny old people that poo poo anything that doesn’t conform to their outdated standards.
All these people who have complained, I bet they have never been to the one in Newport!