Anger over 22-hours-a-day clubbing

1:35pm Tuesday 8th May 2007

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ANGRY residents have slammed the decision to allow a Hadleigh nightclub to open 22 hours a day - from 8am to 6am.

Several people living in Kings Lodge and Queens Lodge, opposite Capones nightclub, which is above La Quinta restaurant, in Benfleet Road, are worried about a substantial rise in noise and disorder.

Castle Point Council said it had no objections to the application, but many residents claim they knew nothing about it.

So while club owners hope to draw top footballers and A-list celebrities to the club on a daily basis, residents are left fearing for their peace and quiet.

Ben Jones, 25, of Queens Lodge, said: "I suspect this will be a bad thing.

"The noise can be unreal when everybody is piling out at 2am or 3am.

"I would have thought there will be an increase in trouble as well."

Another Queens Lodge resident, in her 50s, who did not want to be named, said: "I didn't know it was going to open until 6am.

"I hear the noise through the walls at night and we get clubbers' cars parked behind our building. It's not on."

Another, in her 40s, said: "It is noisy if the windows are open at night and that is the big thing.

"People come outside and shout and fall about, and there might be more fighting."

Also a woman, in her 30s, from nearby Kings Lodge, added: "At the moment it's bearable, I really oppose the idea of it opening until 6am.

"There will be noise, noise and more noise."

In a comment on the Echo website, echo-news.co.uk, a postal worker said: "What a ridiculous decision!

"I live right by the club and had no idea this was being planned. There certainly would have been an objection if I was aware. I start work early in the morning so have to go to bed early and I'm sick to death of being woken up by drunks continously on a Friday right up until when I have to get up."

Under the terms of the new licence, the club will be able to open until 6am on any night of the week.

Bosses at Capones have said they are working closely with top London club promoters to encourage Premiership footballers and A-list celebrities to the nightspot.

They are also hoping to begin opening from 8am to 6am as early as next month.

The club, which opened above La Quinta, near Victoria House Corner roundabout in 2005, is believed to be the only one in Essex with such a licence.