YATE is set to see the return of a nightclub after a 10-year absence, the Gazette can reveal.

At a hearing of South Gloucestershire Council’s licensing committee on Tuesday, a panel of three councillors heard from residents who mounted a co-ordinated campaign against Waves nightclub opening in the former Riley’s snooker club in Yate Shopping Centre.

Around 20 residents of Swan Field and Sundridge Park estates had come together to fight the proposal to re-open the premises, which housed a well-known nightclub, known as Spirals, until a decade ago.

Bill Brown, representing the residents, told the meeting Spirals had brought with it noise, disturbance and unruly behaviour in the early hours of the morning and local people did not want to see it return.

"We reiterate that Yate Shopping Centre, with its unique high residential density, is not the place for a late night club," said Mr Brown. "With overwhelming evidence and residents’ personal experiences of both crime and disorder and frequent public nuisance, residents believe that the extreme shift in the dynamic of the nighttime economy is not a welcome one nor one that can be coped with by the limited police resources."

The application had been delayed from a March hearing to allow father-and-son duo Chris and Mark Coles, alongside two other partners, to come up with a more detailed business plan following criticism from the police.

Inspector Deryck Rees said he had been concerned by the applicants’ inexperience but was now satisfied with their management plan.

"I believe we now have a framework we can work from and enforce and we will work to support them fully," he said.

"We have met four times with the applicants, partly because of their inexperience of running a nightclub, but the conditions we have set are fair.

"As with all these things the proof is in the pudding in terms of actually running it."

Agent Peter Rosser told the committee: "We do sympathise with residents and their concerns are legitimate but most are crime and disorder issues and are matters for the police.

"The problems in the past are not of our making."

Committee chairman Cllr Kevin Seager announced a seven-day-a-week licence would be granted with a long list of conditions, including a closing time of 2.30am Thursday to Sunday and an assurance that local residents would be supplied with a phone number for the management team.

Mark Coles, who lives in Yate, said afterwards: "We are pleased with today’s outcome. It was nice to see local residents and hear their concerns, we need to know about them and will address them to the best of our ability and work closely with the police."

He said the club, which will employ between 20 and 30 full and part-time staff, will open in September offering a range of live music and daytime entertainment. It will also host mixed martial art classes which Mr Coles currently teaches at Yate Leisure Centre.