Family-friendly entertainment venue set for Maidenhead

Hospitality company Berkshire Sport and Leisure have applied for a new premises licence for a new venue called Level 90.

It would be based at 87 Maidenhead High Street, where the former Barbell Lounge was.

Berkshire Sport and Leisure wants permission to sell alcohol, serve late-night refreshment and lay on entertainment.

Permission is sought to sell alcohol from 10am to 3am on Friday and Saturday.

The application also covers the sale of alcohol across shorter hours from Monday to Thursday and on Sunday, between 10am and 11pm.

Regulated entertainment would take place indoors only, between 10am and 11pm from Monday to Thursday and on Sunday.

Entertainment hours until 3am are proposed on Friday and Saturday, matching the hours for the sale of alcohol.

Late-night refreshment is proposed both indoors and outdoors on Friday to Saturday, between 11pm and 3am.

Permission for regulated entertainment – live and recorded music – has only been applied for at basement level, which will be soundproofed to ensure noise doesn’t impact residents.

The plans went before a RBWM licensing and public space protection order sub-committee panel yesterday (Wednesday).

Level 90 will be a ‘family-friendly 90s-themed entertainment venue’, Felix Faulkner, the applicant’s legal representative said.

He said: “The concept is centred around nostalgia, social gaming, food and entertainment, providing a safe and inclusive environment for customers of all ages throughout the week.

“[It] will appeal to families, groups of friends and adults who grew up during the 90s, offering a unique entertainment experience that’s currently lacking in the local area.”

The ground floor will be used as an all-day dining and gaming space where customers can ‘take a step back into the 90s’.

It will include pool and ice hockey tables, darts boards and a dance machine.

The basement will be a late-night bar with live and recorded music, with its own bar as well as beer pong tables and darts boards.

But Daniel Bisset, the applicant, who has worked in Maidenhead for 15 years and runs the Off The Tap pub, reassured councillors the venue will not be a nightclub.

He said: “We’re also not looking to be a nightclub. We’re not looking to be blasting music out until 3am.”

Developer Sorbon Estates objected to the application however, arguing the long operating hours would create ‘unacceptable levels of noise and disturbance for nearby residents’.

The developer said more residential blocks are coming forward in the town centre. Sorbon Estates already has permission for some of these Maidenhead High Street flats.

The objection urged councillors to refuse the application or reduce the opening hours to 11pm and have ‘strict conditions’ attached.

But Mr Faulkner said a number of these apartments for which Sorbon Estates has permission ‘do not yet exist’.

He added: “The apartments have not yet been built, nor has building even commenced. Therefore, the residents whom Sorbon Estates claim are at risk do not yet reside in Maidenhead.”

Any restriction to the hours proposed would lead to the applicant ‘walking away from the site’ and the venue remaining ‘an empty shell’, said Mr Faulkner.

There are also 42 conditions attached to the plans, including CCTV measures and a dispersal policy.

Cllr Mandy Brar (Lib Dem, Bisham and Cookham) asked how the applicant will ensure under 18s leave the venue by 9pm – as per one of the conditions – and how noise will be managed when people leave at 3am.

Mr Bisset reassured councillors that after 9pm, door staff will check IDs, and they will manage customers leaving the venue in the early morning.

The panel’s decision – Cllr Brar, Cllr Neil Knowles and Cllr Simon Bond – will be published within five working days of the meeting.