A Bath brewery which wants to host pottery classes has been given the green light to stay open late on Wednesdays — despite neighbours warning that punters were disturbing their sleep.

The Bath-based Electric Bear Brewing Co is based on the edge of the Brassmill Industrial estate in Newbridge, with its popular taproom open Thursdays to Sunday. But an application to the council to also open for the same hours on Wednesdays prompted concern from locals next door on Osborne Road that the brewery was “being transformed into a public house and party venue.”

At a hearing before Bath and North East Somerset Council’s licensing subcommittee on April 18, the brewery’s Clive Milner told councillors people had asked to hold events such as pottery classes and film nights at the brewery, and they wanted to occasionally hold them on Wednesday nights.

He said: “This is really just to give the business the option of expanding and trying to make our way in the current climate.”

But Nigel Gardner, from Osborne Road, one of the neighbours to submit an objection, said the noise of people sat outside in the taproom during the summer stopped children and people with work in the morning from getting to sleep. He said: “We are used to the noise of the industrial estate, but they don’t go on to 10pm and beyond.”

He added that events such as pottery nights were “innocuous” but reminded councillors: “If the committee gives a licence, they give a licence for the selling of alcohol through those hours, not for pottery classes.”

The brewery said they asked people to leave quietly and tried to call last orders early so the place could close by 10pm. Mr Milner said: “We are aware of the residents on Osborne Road and try to keep the noise as low as possible, but at the same time the taproom is an important part of our business.”

He said that they did not expect a lot of noise on Wednesdays when they held events, but there may be some from people talking as they left.

The licence application — which concerned changing its licenced hours from ending at 7pm on Wednesday to ending at 10pm — was granted by councillors, with a condition that the buildings shutter be closed from 7pm to keep noise down for neighbours.

Noise concerns from businesses are nothing new in this part of suburban Bath where industrial units sit next to quiet residential streets.