Bowling club wins licence bid after bitter row with residents

DUNDEE: Licensing board says Dudhope club members can drink outside

Councillors have told a Dundee bowling club it is still game following a boozy row with neighbours.

Dundee City Council’s licensing board approved Dudhope Bowling Club’s application to allow its members to drink outside the clubhouse following a fiery meeting in the City Chambers yesterday.

The council received 15 objections to the application from local residents who said it would increase noise coming from the club and other forms of antisocial behaviour.

But in a furious riposte, the club’s agent, Janet Hood, said there had been a coordinated campaign to gather objections.

She accused objectors of coercing an elderly woman into signing a letter and implied the club is considering suing the Rev Marion Paton, of St David’s High Kirk, for suggesting some members are “not fit to drive” through alcohol when they leave the club, in her letter.

Mrs Hood also accused The Courier and other press of sensationalism because they reported these objections, which were made in the public domain.

The club was also looking to allow its members to sign in four guests rather than the current two.

Rosemary Butler, of Upper Constitution Street, told the licensing board she believed the club is trying to earn more money through the sale of alcohol without “taking responsibility for its actions”.

She claimed neighbours are already subjected to noise which would get worse if the licence to allow drinking outside was granted.

“It doesn’t seem to know what being a responsible neighbour means,” she said.

However, the club’s secretary, George Lyall, said it had only ever received one complaint from neighbours about noise – from Mrs Butler – and had turned down the music following her call in November last year.

He said the club is considerate towards neighbours and that there is no excessive drinking culture in the club, whose membership comprises bowlers between the ages of 60 and 80.

The licensing board was unanimous in its support of the club’s application.

Labour councillor Kevin Keenan said the allegations made by the objectors had no evidence to support them as neither the police nor the city council’s noise nuisance team had received any complaints about the club.

Picture: Dougie Nicolson. Dudhope Bowling Club in Dundee has won its licence application.

Rosemary Butler was one of the residents who objected to the proposals to allow Dudhope Bowling Club members to drink outside.