A FOOTBALL club has cleared the first hurdle in its bid to keep their clubhouse open until late into the evening.

A FOOTBALL club has cleared the first hurdle in its bid to keep their clubhouse open until late into the evening.

Wisbech Town Football Club has won round one by persuading the licensing committee of West Norfolk Council to allow them to stay open until 00.30am on Fridays and Saturdays and until 11.30pm for the rest of the week.

However the club won’t be able to celebrate just yet as they have to face the council’s development control committee on September 6 to change the terms of their original planning application for the new Lynn Road ground.

The club faced its critics on Wednesday when the licensing committee met to determine their application at their newly built Tom Wood’s Beer Fenland Stadium.

Police told councillors they had no objection to the late night opening although the committee heard from four residents opposed to it and considered a petition signed by a further 70 “interested parties”.

A council spokesman confirmed the application had been granted but said an additional condition, insisting windows and doors are closed if music is playing, would be made.

The scene is now set for the concluding stage next month when the club hopes to persuade councillors to amend the conditions of their original application which were to close the clubhouse nightly by 10pm.

Wisbech Town chairman Paul Brenchley has always insisted he has “no ambition to run a nightclub” but hoped seven day a week opening would make it financially viable.