Kenilworth Town Council's planning committee has raised serious concerns about The Garden Bar at the Pavilion which has been "depressing" local residents.

Problems with licensing, planning and the environmental impact were raised about the Castle Road bar by Cllr Michael Coker at last night's town council planning meeting.

Councillors expressed concern at Warwick District Council's initial decision to permit licensing applications at The Garden Bar, as well as further "failings" to enforce regulations.

The bar, located at the Castle Pavilion, has operated regularly at weekends throughout the summer much to the distain of many local residents.

Councillors unanimously approved a motion to write to WDC about both residents' complaints and the town council's worries that regulations are being breached.

The pavilion itself, which sits in Greenbelt and near to a conservation area, has been subject to a number of rejected planning applications since permission for the stables was granted in 2005.

Speaking at yesterday's meeting, Cllr Coker raised concerns that bars, toilets, tents and gazebos and new fencing panels had all been erected on site.

"Its current planning permission is for that of a stable, and previously on numerous occasions planning applications have been made and have gone down because this is in the green belt, in a sensitive position," he said.

"There is absolutely no doubt that there should be no development on this site other than what is already there."

KTC's concerns, which will be directed to the chief executive and leader of WDC, also point to allegations of inappropriate licensing permission granted by the council.

Cllr Coker added: "Two separate people have applied for licenses so that the number has been doubled to eleven or twelve.

"It is suggested by local residents that the two license holders are associated and therefore there should only be five. This is a matter that needs evaluating on the legal position.

"It would also appear that one applicant has had six licenses, having applied for five in one name and one in another name – obviously by mistake."

Cllr Coker also spoke about the large number of complaints he had received from residents, both about the pavilion, and the lack of action from WDC.

"The people in Castle Road have been disturbed frequently and into the early hours," he said.

"In this last week in particular it has concerned me that the general theme was that people were not so much angry but actually depressed. Depressed as to what they had to look forward to each weekend without anything happening to protect them."

The vote to contact WDC was supported unanimously by councillors.

Cllr John Dearing added: "I want to ask the council what they are doing about enforcement. The allegations are that there are several instances where they have gone beyond what the application allowed them to do; whether that was about hours or activity.

"The other issue is whether it was actually a good decision [by WDC] in the first place."