Fingle Glen can't serve booze late

But you can have champagne for breakfast

Fears over a golf club becoming a "late night party venue" had led to councillors rejecting plans to allow them to stay open until 2 a.m. every Friday and Saturday.

Fingle Glen Golf Hotel had asked Teignbridge District Council to vary their existing licence so they can stay open later.

But while the council’s licensing sub-committee allowed them to start serving alcohol from 7 a.m to allow them to offer champagne breakfasts, they rejected, they've only allowed them to stay open till 1 a.m on Fridays and Saturdays, and not to serve alcohol after 11 p.m.

Cllr Linda Bellshaw, chairman of Tedburn St Mary parish council, urged the three strong committee to reject the licence application. She said: “The concern as a parish is about the noise late at night. Pathfinder Village has historically been a site for older people and we are worried....it may become more of a late night party venue” Jess Hogan, from Teignbridge’s environmental health team, agreed that the opening until 2 a.m. was likely to cause a disturbance.

But the committee heard from a representative of Fingle Glen who said: “Golf will continue to be the main focus or our membership. We are making the application for a variation to a typical licence for others in the industry for entertainment so we can offer a venue for weddings and functions which does so much to support the main business off golf.

“The opening hours are more suitable and will keep us on an even keel. We have lost a lot of business already and cannot afford to lose more if people and weddings go elsewhere. By extending the opening hours, we have no intention of causing disruption to the neighbours.

“It is looking to accommodate weddings, and a temporary event notice wouldn’t be satisfactory and limited in the number that we can request. It would be a shame to lose out on the entire wedding booking because the option to stay open an hour later isn’t there.”

They added that they are trying to push Fingle Glen as a club course, but the functions and weddings are necessary to supplement the main businesses, and said: “This will cause very little added disruptions to the neighbours and we will enforce the code of conduct to all guests to maintain the tranquil atmosphere that Fingle Glen strives to keep.”

But after a lengthy debate, the committee chose to reject the late night aspect of the premises licence variation. Committee chairman Cllr John Nutley said: “We have taken into account the risk to public nuisance and to those in the vicinity.” He added that the golf hotel could make applications for temporary event notices for individual events if they wished on occasions to stay open later, limited to a maximum of 15 events a year.