More than 1,000 people have objected to plans to build flats adjoining a Bath pub known for its live music.

Housing developers want to build nine residential flats next door to and directly adjoining the Bell Inn on Walcot Street. The pub, which has been a thriving music venue since the 1960s, fears it will face noise complaints from anyone who moves in.

A Bell spokesperson said: “We don’t want to find ourselves being asked to turn down the music, reduce our events or change what makes the Bell what it is.”

Now 1,147 people have submitted objections to Bath and North East Somerset Council urging it not to grant planning permission for the new flats. Only five comments were left in support of the flats. A post on the pub’s Facebook page said: “A huge thank you to everyone who has stood up for live music, our community, and the future of our pub.”

Among the Bath locals to object is the city’s Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse.  She said that the decision on whether to grant planning permission should take the potential impact on the Bell into account. Her objection states: “The proposal would place a valued grassroots music venue at risk of operational restriction and consequent loss of community amenity. The venue provides a very long-established cultural and social function for the local community, which should be protected from the unreasonable impacts of introducing residential accommodation immediately alongside it.”

The plans would see an industrial unit next to the pub knocked down and the flats built adjoining the pub in its place. Developers are supposed to include adequate soundproofing, but the noise assessment submitted with the planning application claims the Bell only hosts “occasional” live music and that assessing the noise from inside the pub was not necessary. It only accounts for a “reasonable worst-case scenario” of 70 people in the beer garden speaking with raised voices.

Submitting an objection to the planning application, Jessie Spencer-Barrett wrote: “As someone who knows the pub extremely well, the noise assessment is entirely misleading.” She added: “The loss to residents of Bath, if the council were forced to review the pub’s music licence, would be huge.”

Another objector, Pete Stroud, wrote: “The Bell is part of what makes Bath unique. It has enormous cultural and social value, having provided free live music to the public several nights a week for half a century. To threaten this for the sake of a few inappropriate and unsustainable flats seems ludicrous, and I urge the council to reject this proposal.”

The plans will either be decided by planning officers at Bath and North East Somerset Council or by councillors on its planning committee.

The 300-year old pub was almost sold off 13 years ago but was bought by the community in a campaign supported by music icons Peter Gabriel and Robert Plant.