NEIGHBOURS of the Village Inn, Thurlestone say they have been suffering sleepless nights as a result of late night staff parties.

Residents claim staff from the pub and the Thurlestone Hotel have been congregating outside the pub for post-work parties several nights a week.

After residents’ pleas to management to curb the noise fell on deaf ears, they felt they filmed the disturbance and passed the footage to the police and South Hams Council’s environmental health team.

Following a meeting at South Hams Council, the hotel has sent a letter to neighbouring properties ‘apologising profusely for the disturbances.’

But some residents have complained they continue to feel ‘intimidated’.

The Village Inn is owned and managed as part of the Thurlestone Hotel by the Grose family, who are currently celebrating the 120th year of their family run hotel.

One resident, who didn’t wish to be named said: ‘Thurlestone is simply a quiet village. Not much goes on here. It is a very quiet and peaceful place to live, a place where you can literally hear a pin drop at night.

‘Or it was, until last April following the completion of the new extension at the pub. From that day on, staff from the hotel have been using the pub as their social club and ’drinking hole’ every night after work. And the noise reached such a level that the neighbouring residents were unable to sleep.

‘Despite regular calls to the hotel, nothing was done to rectify this problem, and the pub remained open with lights inside and outside blazing until gone 11.30pm, and often until after midnight.

‘The gatherings increased, and soon it was simply impossible for any of the residents of the neighbouring properties to sleep without closed windows.’

The resident continued: ‘I had to resort to going into another room in my house, leaving my husband to sleep alone, as he needed windows open to breath due to a lung condition. And I had to sleep with windows closed as I had to be up early for work.’

Following one complaint, a resident was told by the bar manager that the noise was ‘nothing to do with him.’

A complaint was then made to environmental health at South Hams Council, and the residents began filming the disturbances, with one resident saying they were ‘at their wits’ end.’

Another neighbour who didn’t wish to be named said: ‘It’s been intolerable, the lack of sleep has just pushed us to the edge.

‘No matter how many times we’ve tried to deal with this situation, nothing was done about it until we went to the police and South Hams Council.’

Another resident said: ‘They had no intention of calming down, or respecting other people’s right to sleep, and blatantly showed their lack of respect and defiant attitude.’

A spokesman from South Hams Council said: ‘Officers have recently met with the owners of the Thurlestone Hotel and the Village Inn to discuss noise complaints. ‘Following the meeting the owners have agreed to make changes to reduce the impact they were having, some of these improvements have already happened.’

The pub have accepted voluntary changes to their licence conditions - including CCTV cameras being installed in the outside area, no drinks allowed outside after 10pm, last drinks to be served at 11pm and closing time at 11.20pm.

The Thurlestone Hotel have since sent a letter to neighbouring homes explaining ‘This is utterly unacceptable and rest assured that we will not tolerate this happening again.’

Local residents have been given the contact details for managers, and urged to contact them directly ‘day or night to let us know if there is any disturbance whatsoever.’

Matthew Grose, managing director of the Thurlestone Hotel said: ‘The hotel and Village Inn have been operating in Thurlestone for more than 120 years and relationships with our local neighbours are very important to us.

‘It’s been disappointing to learn that over the summer months elements of the operation of our pub have caused inconvenience.

‘We have taken immediate steps to rectify these issues and are working closely with the relevant licensing authorities to ensure there are no further problems in the future.

‘As part of this, we are maintaining a dialogue with the local community that has so far been met with a positive response.’