People living in Gosport are fearing an activity centre will be taken over by three-day-long parties, cocktail-fuelled axe throwing and gatecrashers.

Broderick Hall in Clayhall Road was bequeathed for the benefit of children, but now a licence to sell alcohol has been granted by the borough council, locals fear it will be turned into a site for three-day parties all year round.

Applicants Nathan Cole and Alex Merrifield of GoSport Activity Centre were granted permission to sell alcohol and play live and recorded music at the site, where kayaking, paddle boarding, canoeing, sailing, axe throwing, archery, survival skills, bushcraft and residential stays are offered.

They had applied for a combination of recorded and live music from 9am to 11pm each day and to serve alcohol Sunday from 11am to 10pm, and Friday to Saturday 11am to 11pm. 

Gosport’s licensing board heard that the venue can hold up to 180 people inside and that there is a capacity of 500 customers, including the outside space of two fields, next to Alverstoke Creek.

The board granted a licence to sell alcohol and play live and recorded music, but reduced the hours to sell alcohol from Sunday to Thursday, midday to 9pm, and Friday to Saturday, midday to 11pm. 

Live music hours will be Monday to Thursday 10am to 9pm, Friday to Saturday 10am to 11pm and Sunday 10am to 10pm, and recorded music hours Monday 9am to 9pm, Tuesday to Thursday 9am to 10pm, Friday to Saturday 9am to 11pm and Sunday 9am to 10pm.

The board said this was to try and reduce any nuisances and noise from alcohol sales on local residents living nearby and to limit exposure of influence of alcohol on children. 

Council monitoring officer Paul Baulf said a licence could only be issued on objectives that were enforceable, the residents had a right of appeal and if the licence was breached it could be reviewed.

He said residents had shared concerns were over all four licensing objectives: prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance and protection of children from harm.

The meeting on June 3 heard from three objectors and considered written objections from over 24 local residents living on Atkinson Close, Clayhall Road and St Marks’ Road and two nursing homes near Broderick Hall.

Resident Shaun Web said: “Broderick Hall should be a place for local events for local people who can walk to the venue but this is ‘mission creep’.” 

“GoSport is a nationwide operation and the sale of alcohol is now introducing alcohol related issues to the community such as segregation, CCTV, Challenge 25 and gatecrashes on a scale that is bound to increase.”

Speaking on behalf of many residents, Antony Quinn said: “Broderick Hall is in the middle of a quiet residential area. And while it doesn’t want to be a full-time pub, it proposes to be a high turnover multi-use commercial, private hire venue for catered events, parties, live music, weddings and multiple day events. It invites permanent, irreversible disruption to the lives of residents.”

He also raised concerns over the sale of alcohol and the venue being near water and impacting the wellbeing of children. Going from allowing five, three-day events to 200 events each year and music played outside only 30 meters away from people’s homes.

At the beginning of the meeting, Cllr Philip Raffaelli (Con, Anglesey) said Broderick Hall was bequeathed to the community to be used as a place to protect, educate, and for health and wellbeing of people and young people.

In the meeting, he said: “Alcohol, boats, water and children are a very bad mix. I cannot believe that this community should be disrupted by this licence.

“Everything that they’ve done [referring to a Facebook post seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service where GoSport promote axe throwing activities with cocktails]… and not telling quite the truth about this licence application.

“Once they get this licence it will open the door to what they can do to the limit of this licence.”

The running of Broderick Hall was officially taken over by Mr Cole and Mr Merrifield in March this year but they have run events by applying for temporary events licences at the venue for the last two years, said the officer’s report. 

Anglesey ward councillor and local resident, Cllr Raffaelli, at the end of the meeting, said he hoped the management committee at Broderick Hall would take proper notice of the residents’ concerns. He also said he hoped GoSport would now ensure limitations on numbers at three-day events are enforced.

He said if there are any issues in the future then residents must raise their concerns with the proper authorities, directly to the police and the council regarding licensing.

After the meeting, Mr Merrifield said: “We are not out to make money from alcohol. This licence makes running our events more convenient instead of applying for a temporary licence each time.”

He added: “But this process has allowed residents to air some of their frustrations.  Hopefully we can now rebuild some of the relationships with residents.”