Football club loses appeal over noisy fans' bar

Accrington Stanley football club has lost its appeal over the refusal of backdated planning permission for its hospitality suite and supporters bar.

The League Two side will now work with Hyndburn Council to avoid having to knock down the complex housing its 1968 Lounge and Coley’s bar.

The club has been involved in a noise row with the council over the bar which saw owner Andy Holt handing back his Freedom of the Borough award in 2022.

A new planning application will be submitted when the existing problems are solved.

In 2020 the Lancashire club was given planning permission to redevelop its South Stand at its Crown Ground, also known as the Wham Stadium, in Livingstone Road.

But in 2022 the council discovered it had not been built in accordance with the previous approval.

It then issued a noise abatement order and the club submitted a new, backdated application to "regularise" the situation.

But the council turned it down in January largely on noise grounds.

Stanley then appealed to the Planning Inspectorate over fears it might have to knock it down. That has now been turned down.

The judgement said the development would "result in significant injurious harm to the living conditions of neighbouring residents, with particular regard to noise and disturbance".

Accrington Stanley’s commercial director Warren Eastham said: “We are working with the council planning and environmental health teams on a solution to mitigate the noise issue and satisfy the planning requirements in a new application.”

Councillor Kimberley Whitehead said: “We want to work with the club and the residents to find an amicable solution for all parties.”

The original Accrington Football Club was one of the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888, but folded and left the league in 1893.

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