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Actor Danny Dyer opened Sugar Sugar last year, but neighbours are now complaining of the noise
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Noise from Sugar Sugar making neighbours' lives a misery

By Jonathan Low
September 24, 2012

Revellers shouting and singing outside a town centre nightclub are making people’s lives a misery, according to a sleep-deprived neighbour.

Sema Mustafa, 48, claims her life has ‘significantly changed’ following the opening of Sugar Sugar in Wellington Road more than a year ago.

Ms Mustafa, who lives with her partner in nearby Oakey Drive, says the noise and disruption caused by revellers has increased since the club began opening its doors during the week.

Danny Dyer to open new nightclub

She said: “Most weekends, and more frequently mid-week, the club opens its doors for events that start from around 8pm to 3am.

“It is quite tricky at the weekends, but the weekdays are even worse.

“There is always a group of approximately 30 to 50, sometimes more, party guests queuing up at the start of the night and spilling out into the area directly outside the venue while the club is in full swing and at the end of the night.

“They shout, sing, swear, scream, are often drunk and have no notion that they are revelling with a residential area close by.

“Car horns are sounded in the early hours and cars screech in and out of the alleyway that leads from the nightclub to the road.”

Ms Mustafa, an events organiser, claims the noise has affected her sleeping pattern as she works full-time and has to be up at 5.30am every morning.

She said: “We both work full time and have to be up very early morning, so not getting to sleep until the early hours really affects us.

“We have gone from living in a relatively quiet community to living opposite a social club which would be better suited in a more central location, away from residential space.

“Since the nightclub opened around a year ago, our lives have significantly changed.

“Not only do we get to hear booming loud music, our flat vibrates with the bass sound, and this is with only the main nightclub doors open.

“When all the window and doors of the venue are open, which they often are, this noise is magnified.”

Ms Mustafa said she also wanted to emphasise the problem because of a new complex of houses and flats close by.

“I feel all potential buyers should be made aware of the possible side effects of living so close to this venue,” she added.

Wokingham Borough Council said it was looking into the problem and had notified the club of the complaint.

Paul Anstey, joint service delivery manager for Wokingham borough and West Berkshire councils said: “The investigation is very much in its infancy and we are trying to establish a picture of the scene.

“We have given Ms Mustafa a log book to record the incidents, and we will be looking to see if there are any irregularities, whether it is continuous, and if there is a pattern.

“We are going to gather as much information as we can before issuing any notices or taking formal action.”

No one was available from the nightclub to comment.

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Most recent user comments 9 of 9

Some good and useful points- I thought if an official complaint was made (to the apparently non responding council in this case) the seller (could be a builder?) was obliged to mention it? Anyone in the intellectual readership able to advise? Would be interested to know, thank you.

Wobbly Bob
24/09/2012 at 17:57

Cheers for the clarifications.

Whilst a bit of research would help, I doubt estate agents / developers would draw any attention to it... My previous house was next to a large student block, hidden by a huge hedge (I thought it looked like a peaceful retirement block - it was during the school holidays). Needless to say I was a bit disappointed the first weekend after moving in. So I don't think I have much of a right to say anything on the matter ;)

alex_f, Wokingham
24/09/2012 at 17:03

A noisy nightclub, well who'd have thought it. As alex-f says, there has been a club on the site for on an off for years now, I used to go along (last time being probably 2 or 3 years ago I admit) and my sister used to socialise down there years before I did.

I'm sure in its new guise it is currently busier than over the last few years of its previous incarnation, but I can't imagine the noise levels are all that much worse, though I guess as the younger crowd get ever trashier anything is possible.

Perhaps Ms Mustafa or one of the other local residents who find the noise unbearable, could help provide some details for this article by taking 30 seconds to download one of the many free noise meter apps to their smartphone then when they are woken fire it up and see just how loud it is and send the results to GetWok, preferable with a screenshot from the phone showing the data (no cheating and just shouting into the phone).

Twyford, Woodley
24/09/2012 at 16:32

Nightclub closed whilst houses are built and sold....... rather convenient for the builder.

Woky Local
24/09/2012 at 16:06

@alex_f

It opened in its current form back in Feb/March last year, if I remember rightly. Before then it had been shut for a few years and previously had been another nightclub. I bought my house in the years it was shutdown and didn't know that it had used to be a nightclub. I guess with a bit more research on my part, I would have found that out and realised there was a chance it would re-open, but in any case I wouldn't have imagined the noise (the music is the worst part for me) would be as bad and as invasive as it is.

and-anon
24/09/2012 at 15:40

@R Matthews - Couldn't have put it better myself ;)

On a separate note - I do feel for these residents (coming from someone who is woken by just cats fighting in the middle of the night). However - was this not a nightclub before? Or have the opening hours changed since?

alex_f, Wokingham
24/09/2012 at 15:24

Danny Dyer has got a lot to answer for.

R Matthews
24/09/2012 at 13:14

As another local resident living very close to the nightclub, I complained to the council a while after they opened. The noise really impacts the quality of our life and there have been many many nights where I've been unable to get to sleep until 2/3am due to the noise. The council seem so passive about the issue, they also told me they'd send a log book to record incidents, even though I explained the nightclub has opening hours and those are the noisy times.

I cannot understand how the nightclub was allowed to open in such close proximity to various residential areas (and increasingly so now with the new development, practically next door to the night club, in Wellington Road). There seems no interest from the council in protecting the people who live in the area from something that really does affect people and their lives.

and-anon
24/09/2012 at 13:12

This won't go down too well with the developers who have paid a fortune for the cricket ground to build new houses. I think action will be taken to nip this in the bud or the houses next to the club (closer than Oakey Drive) will be heavily discounted / unsaleable. We'll see! Especially as the lady has played the trump card of warning all potential buyers of an issue.