THE owners of a family-run shooting club say that thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money has been spent appeasing a small amount of people complaining about the noise from shoots held for six hours a month.

Stroud District Council is planning to take Bristol Clay Shooting Club to Crown Court over a noise abatement order issue, which has so far cost the club owners, Neil and Charlotte Padfield, £15,000 in legal fees plus six months' worth of lost trade.

Overall 31 individuals have complained about noise coming from the shoot site between Kingswood and Hillesley. The couple say that locally there is plenty of support for the shoot, which has been going for six years and only received one complaint until 2009.

"Hundreds of local people attend the shoot regularly and support what we do," said Mrs Padfield.

The club was given planning permission by the district council last year for large shooting equipment storage boxes. The permission came with a condition that there should be shooting on the site to justify the boxes, however a week after the permission was granted they were served a noise abatement order from the council’s environmental health department stating they must stop shooting.

At Cheltenham Magistrates' Court last month magistrates decided not to stop the shoot, but instead to place further restrictions so that shooting can only take place between 10am and 1pm every other Sunday.

Mr and Mrs Padfield, of Charfield, agreed to the restrictions, but Stroud District Council has since decided to take the matter to Crown Court, a move that is likely to cost upwards of £20,000.

Mr Padfield said: "I just think this is a tremendous waste of money. We know the council is having to cut its budget, why waste so much money on these court cases to please such a small number of people?"

Mr Padfield said the whole exercise was also costing him a lot of money.

"Until last October we had never missed a shoot for six years, we built our reputation on that. This is having a serious impact on us. It’s like they want to put us out of business, we feel victimised."

Kingswood Parish Council supported the noise abatement order on behalf of local parishioners. Clerk to the council Mary Leonard said most of the objectors came from Hillesley, but added the shots could be heard from Kingswood and residents also complained about the parking on Hillesley Road on shoot days.

Rob Weaver, environmental protection manager for Stroud District Council, said following complaints he had investigated and found there was an "unacceptable level of noise" which meant some people could not enjoy sitting in their gardens.

He added: "Unfortunately, we feel that the conditions that have been imposed will not actually make any difference to the noise nuisance, which local people have been suffering from for a number of years, and we have consequently appealed to the Crown Court."