Shaftesbury Bowling and Recreation Club off Annadale Avenue has been at the centre of a row over noise for most of this decade – specifically over its Tuesday night dance class, which ends at 10.30pm.
The row has spilled over into Belfast City Council’s Licensing Committee, previously in the summer of 2023, and again recently, at the December meeting in City Hall.
And while the recent meeting landed at the same decision as before, with councillors approving an application for the renewal of a six-day annual indoor entertainments licence, it sparked a level of acrimony which clearly has not dimmed over the years.
In the licensing report for the latest application, a council officer wrote: “An objection has been received from local residents living near the club. The nature of their objections relates to ongoing loud music on a Tuesday night and occasionally at weekends.”
The objector said there was “loud bass music,” “windows open when music is playing” and added “persistent disruption had resulted in adverse effects on family health and well-being including disrupted sleep of young children.”
They said “entertainment was being given priority over people living in homes nearby.”
The report added: “Following receipt of the objection the service offered to facilitate a liaison meeting between both parties to discuss the residents’ issues and attempt to resolve them.
“The offer of the meeting was acceptable to the club but as the objector had met with members of the club committee and an officer from the service on 11 November 2022 in relation to the previous renewal application they did not wish to repeat the exercise, indicating there was nothing new to discuss and nothing had changed in relation to their complaint.”
The report states that to address residents’ concerns the club advised the council they had reduced all noise levels, including turning off bass music, and had lined the door facing onto the houses at the back of the club, and locked windows at the back of the hall. They said they would continue to monitor noise with sound level recordings outside the hall.
The objector returned to the council stating the applicant was “not taking their concerns seriously”.
Seventeen noise complaints were received by the council’s night time noise team between February 2024 and January 2025. The report refers to these complaints, stating: “On 11 occasions no noise was witnessed, on three occasions faint voices or music was witnessed. On one occasion audible music was witnessed but not considered unreasonable for the time of day, and on two occasions no visits were carried out.”
Ten noise complaints have been received by the council noise team since February 2025. In reference to these, the report states: “On two occasions faint music was witnessed, and on three occasions officers of the noise team witnessed noise levels resulting in a verbal warning being issued.
“On one occasion people were witnessed talking outside the venue with no music playing, on three occasions no action was taken, and on one occasion no visit was undertaken.”
The main hall at Shaftesbury Bowling and Recreation Club has a maximum capacity of 200 persons. After the December decision by councillors they will again be licensed to provide entertainment Monday to Saturday, 11.30 am to 11pm.
The club may apply to the PSNI for a late liquor licence which would permit entertainment to continue to 1am. Neither the police nor the fire service objected to the licence application.
In one of the objector’s representation forms they stated: “Previously people attending events parked outside our home after we contacted noise complaints BCC and beeped horns and flashed lights.”
One objector said they had received abuse on social media as a result of their complaint, after their details had been revealed by the council and the media.
The applicant said in their written representation: “Shaftesbury Bowling Club has played an important role in the Annadale Avenue community since it moved to the current location in 1956. It is an invaluable sporting and social resource for those from 18 years of age to 96 years.
“It provides a social hub for our members and for the surrounding community. We have approx 80 members, the majority of whom are 60 plus. Our members compete in club competitions and local championships and leagues.
“We are located in the middle of housing developments and rarely have complaints of any kind. Noise complaints in the past years have been from one or two households. Our other neighbours are very supportive of the club.”
It adds: “We have taken sound recordings over the past year during the Tuesday evening dance classes and none of these have shown excessive noise.
“We are still recovering our membership from a post Covid number of 50. As our membership grows, we use any funds raised from functions to carry our ongoing repairs.”
The club highlighted they provided a home for a variety of activities, including a Sunday Church Service and midweek youth church group meeting, children’s Irish dancing class on Saturday mornings, art classes, yoga classes, resident and allotment group meetings, and get-togethers for learning disability support and cancer survivors.
Bowling is practiced throughout the week, outdoors from April to September and indoors for the rest of the year. The club has 60 members who compete in club competitions and local championships and leagues, the majority over 70 years old.
A representative for the club told the Belfast Council Licensing Committee: “We do our best to work with our neighbours, we don’t want to be arguing with them. We are in the middle of a housing development, and we had letters of support from 10 to 12 of our neighbours supporting the club. We are part of the community.”
She added: “We offered to send in a noise engineer into the house of a neighbour who had complained last time, and they didn’t want us to do that. But we were keen to see what sort of noise level we were talking about, and was it really excessive.
“But we weren’t able to do that, and so we are at a loss as to what we can do, other than close down. We are very keen bowlers, and we don’t want to.”