Plymouth neighbours' fume as sleep ruined by nightclub noise and 'chaos'
A controversial Plymouth city centre nightclub is facing having its licence reviewed after neighbours continually complained about noise. Club Inferno re-opened in Lockyer Street in March last year and has been at the centre of complaints that its music is so loud it is keeping people awake at night - despite it having a noise-limiting device installed.
Neighbours also complained about clubbers “screaming, shouting, crying, arguing, vomiting” and leaving rubbish and smashed bottles behind them. The said the din is preventing them getting a good night’s kip and having a detrimental effect on their physical and mental health.
The city’s Environmental Health Department has now asked for the 380-capacity club’s licence to be reviewed “for the prevention of public nuisance following reports of noise nuisance and complaints received from nearby residents”. People have until October 9 to make representations.
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A report presented to Plymouth City Council ’s Licensing Sub Committee said the Environmental Health Department had received complaints of excess noise from five separate residential properties. It said officers visited those homes and could hear music coming from Club Inferno.
The report said the club - situated in a Grade II listed building across the road from the Theatre Royal car park. - had breached conditions on its licence “regularly” and said: “The breaches are continuing whenever the venue is open to trade.” It added: “This is having a negative impact on the licensing objective for the prevention of public nuisance.”
The report said complaints started to pour in within days of the club opening on March 31, 2023. In April, environmental health officers visited neighbouring houses and found: “Music and bass beat from Club Inferno was audible within the living room and bedrooms. The music was intrusive and of a level that would prevent sleep.”
The club’s boss agreed to keep the noise down, but by May the noise levels had crept back up and an application for a licence review was made, But this was dropped when the club agreed to fit a noise-limiting device.
Within weeks of doing this, however, nearby residents were complaining they could hear music again. During the next few months, noise levels subsided but periodically increased again and in December Club Inferno was warned it was not complying with its licence conditions.
Early this year the club was threatened with enforcement action and bosses agreed to set the noise limiting device to a lower level. But by June complaints were coming back in.
One neighbour said the noise was having a detrimental effect on his job, health and relationship. He said: “We are deprived of the normal enjoyment of day-to-day family life.”
He said the racket can last from midnight to 6am sometimes and said: “Even if you manage to sleep you are woken up repeatedly by the music, especially the bass, the chaos, people arguing and screaming at each other at four o’clock in the morning.”
Another resident said the din from the club was affecting her “physically and mentally” and said she had to use earplugs and take sleeping tablets to get some rest. She stressed that when she moved to the area the club had been closed “for a number of years” and didn’t reopen until months after she arrived.
Another neighbour complained of hearing “invasive, unrelenting, thumping music and vocals, DJ yelling, in our bedroom, all night, until around 4.30am or 5am”. The woman added: “In addition to this, it’s chaos outside. There is no latest entry time for the club, every time the door opens the noise is even louder, people coming and going, screaming, shouting, crying, arguing, vomiting, taxis, etc, and so on - all night.”
She said it had left her “depressed, anxious, worried, agitated, lethargic and exhausted all of the time” due to lack of sleep. Another submission from a resident said: “The loudest music seems to start at 1am and goes on all night until six o’clock in the morning, along with the noise from the smoking area to include people shouting, swearing, etc and people leaving the club early in the morning and leaving their rubbish including cans, broken bottles and even their vomit.”
Club Inferno is in premises which once housed the clubs The Factory and, before that, Zeros. In February 2022 plans were afoot to create Club Inferno and replace The Factory . But in February 2023 PlymouthLive reported how some residents who had bought properties on Lockyer Street within the previous 12 months - in offices refurbished as residential properties - claimed they had not been told the club would reopen when they purchased their homes.
PlymouthLive has contacted Club Inferno for a response to the current licence review. but has yet to receive one.
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