Dacorum granted Camelot's premises licence but cut the 1am Friday and Saturday finish to midnight and kept every activity indoors, after 27 residents objected.
Hemel Hempstead’s rugby club has its premises licence, but not the one it asked for.
Dacorum Borough Council’s Licensing of Alcohol and Gambling Sub-Committee granted Hemel Hempstead (Camelot) RUFC a licence for its Chaulden Lane clubhouse at a hearing on 18 September. The minutes were published on 7 October. They record that every licensed activity is limited to indoors, that alcohol may be sold for drinking on the premises only, and that the latest finish is midnight on Friday and Saturday, not the 1am the club applied for (minutes, 18 September 2026).
Councillors Jonathan Gale, who chaired, Terry Douris and Ron Tindall heard the case. The hearing opened at 11am and closed at 1.07pm. Two objectors spoke. The club was represented by its chairman and a representative (meeting page).
What was granted
The licence covers four activities, and the minutes say each may take place “ONLY” indoors:
- sale of alcohol, for consumption on the premises only
- live and amplified music
- late night refreshment
- showing of films
The hours are the same for all four:
- Monday to Thursday: 11am to 11pm
- Friday and Saturday: 11am to midnight
- Sunday: 11am to 10.30pm
One condition was imposed, in the minutes’ words: “to keep the rear fire doors closed unless being used for its intended purpose”.
What the club asked for
Our report before the hearing set out the application in full. The club had asked for:
- alcohol, on and off the premises, until midnight Monday to Thursday, 1am on Friday and Saturday and 11pm on Sunday
- live and recorded music, films and late night refreshment both indoors and outdoors, to the same finishing times
- the premises open to the public until 12.30am on weeknights and 1.30am on Friday and Saturday
- dance, indoor sport, and boxing or wrestling
Set against that, the decision takes an hour off Friday and Saturday, an hour off Monday to Thursday, and half an hour off Sunday. It removes every outdoor element. It permits no off-sales. Dance, indoor sport and boxing or wrestling do not appear in the list of activities granted, and the minutes record no opening hours for the premises at all.
The decision follows the council’s own noise team
The one objection from inside the council turned out to be the one that mattered. Dacorum’s Environmental and Community Protection pollution team had told the sub-committee that outdoor films, music and dance to the hours applied for “risk creating a public nuisance”, while the same activities held indoors, or finishing outdoors by 10pm, “are unlikely to do so” (Appendix A, committee papers).
The granted licence is the indoor half of that advice. The application had said recorded music “may occasionally be extended to the car park and adjoining playing field”. Under the licence as issued, it may not.
The 27 residents who objected had most often asked for four things: an outdoor music curfew of 10pm, doors and windows kept shut during indoor entertainment, a measurable noise limit, and a yearly cap on outdoor events. The decision goes past the first by licensing nothing outdoors. The fire door condition answers part of the second. There is no noise limit and no cap, because with no outdoor entertainment on the licence there is nothing to cap.
The ward councillor had supported the application and asked for a limit on open air events and an earlier finish for them. The sub-committee removed them instead.
Fireworks night
The club’s application described an annual fireworks event on the Friday nearest 5 November with around 1,000 people expected. Our fireworks page lists Camelot’s display on 6 November.
Fireworks are not a licensable activity. Selling alcohol or playing amplified music outdoors is. Under this licence the bar and the music stay inside the clubhouse. For anything outdoors the club would need a temporary event notice, and the government’s guidance says a temporary event notice only covers events with “fewer than 500 people at all times”, including staff (GOV.UK).
What happens next
The club, and anyone who made a representation, can appeal to the magistrates’ court within 21 days of being notified of the decision. The minutes do not record an appeal. A premises licence has no expiry date, so the hours and the condition granted on 18 September stand until the licence is varied or reviewed.
The club’s existing club premises certificate, which covers members and their guests, is unaffected. What the new licence adds is the ability to serve the public and hire the clubhouse out, indoors, to the hours above.
The council records the full discussion as video minutes on its YouTube channel.
Other decisions by the same sub-committee
- KFC, 47 Maylands Avenue, heard at 10am the same morning: granted as applied for, with hot food until 1am seven nights a week (our report).
- Caprinos Pizza, Miswell Lane, Tring, about eight miles west, heard on 29 September: the takeaway asked for 2am on Friday and Saturday and was given midnight (our report).
What it means for you
If you live on Old Fishery Lane, Chaulden Lane, Cangels Close or Northridge Way, the licence as granted does not permit music, films, a bar or hot food outdoors at any hour. Indoors, the latest finish is midnight on a Friday or Saturday and 11pm on a school night.
If amplified music reaches you from the playing field or the car park at a club event, it is either running under a temporary event notice, which the club must give the council notice of, or it is outside the licence. Either way the route is a noise complaint to Dacorum’s environmental health team, which is how the two 2025 complaints in the file were logged. Any resident can also ask the council to review a premises licence once it is in use.
For the club, the licence means it can now sell to non-members and take clubhouse bookings from the public, which the application said it needed to do to stay solvent. Parking on Chaulden Lane during events was a recurring complaint in the objections and is not covered by any condition.
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