POOLE Town Football Club has been granted an alcohol and music licence for its new social club at the Tatnam Ground.

Chris Reeves, vice-chairman of the club said they needed, “slightly bigger premises to provide appropriate hospitality to their visitors”.

Residents and Oakdale Junior School had objected to the licence to sell alcohol from 10am to 11pm seven days a week, along with playing recorded music.

The club says the school withdrew its objection, however Borough of Poole had no formal notice of this and took the letter into consideration.

Approving the application, licensing sub-committee chairman, Cllr John Rampton said: “The sub-committee did not find any evidence to justify a refusal of the application and therefore decided to grant the application.

“We have included within our approval a condition stating that no alcohol shall be sold on the premises one hour before, during, or one hour after normal school hours operated by the adjacent Oakdale Junior School.”

He added: “The sub-committee was satisfied that the condition is appropriate and we believe it will address the concerns raised by residents. All other requirements were met by the applicant so approval was given.”

Mr Reeves said: “We have run a bar at our ground for eight years with no complaints from the police, fire, council or school.

“We did have complaints about our small facilities meaning that visiting teams had to eat their after match meals standing outside. We hold the FA’s highest community kite mark.”

The club has submitted a new planning application to the borough to “regularise” permission for its new clubroom after deviating from the originally approved building footprint.

In a letter to planners Mr Reeves said: “We write to apologise for any misunderstandings regarding the situation at Poole Town FC, Tatnam and the current ‘unauthorised’ building works.”