Plans for a Liverpool city centre car park to be able to permanently host events have been rejected by the council.
Michael Edwards, of Pub Invest Group, had applied to use a car park between Seel Street and Slater Street as an events venue into the early hours of the morning.
The car park is currently acting as a fanzone for the European Championships under a separate licensing arrangement but Mr Edwards had hoped to get a permanent licence for the space, which currently has a capacity of up to 460.
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However, the plans faced significant opposition at a licensing hearing last week after the city's environmental health team raised concerns about the effect of noise.
Paul Farrell, who works within the council’s environmental health team, said he was fundamentally opposed to any plans which would see events continue late into the night.
He said the nature of the site and its location meant that, even with extra measures to try to limit noise nuisance, he believed the proximity to nearby buildings meant there would be complaints.
When asked if he believed noise levels would likely reach a point inside nearby properties that passed an unacceptable threshold, Mr Farrell replied: “Absolutely.”
He said: “We will absolutely get complaints from residents and the environmental health team will then have to deal with those complaints.
“As we all know, environmental health has extremely limited resources as it is.
“If this is allowed I just see it becoming a really serious issue.”
Mr Edward's licensing consultant, Karl Barry, had tried to argue in favour of the licence being granted, but minutes published on Friday confirmed that the plans had been rejected.
The notice said that the licensing and gambling sub-committee "don’t feel that any measures put in place would stop the nuisance that would be caused to residents" and added that it would undermine attempts to limit public nuisance, rejecting the plans.
The sub-committee's decision can be appealed to the magistrates' court within 21 days.
