A YORK social club faces a court bill of nearly £5,000 for breaking noise laws during a fund-raising concert for Help For Heroes.

The Post Office Employees Social Club in Marygate was fined following complaints from residents in new flats nearby and a council warning, York Magistrates Court heard.

Club members have now rallied to help, agreeing loans totalling £22,000 to pay for sound-proofing work, which has now been done.

Noise enforcement officers from City of York Council had warned the club to keep the noise down last summer after residents repeatedly complained of very loud music, Joseph Ghirardello, for the council, told York magistrates.

But on November 29, ten days after the club was served with a noise abatement order, and after the council had given it a list of ways to monitor noise levels, music from the club was so loud at 11.15pm that it was impossible for local residents to sleep and very difficult to concentrate on reading a book, the solicitor said.

Philip Morgan, for the club, said it had been open for more than 70 years and had started to receive complaints about noise levels only after flats were built nearby two or three years ago.

He said it had no-one used to dealing with such matters and said the council advice had been "less than helpful" in what was acceptable levels of noise.

The club admitted breaching a noise abatement order on November 29 and asked for a similar offence on December 14 to be taken into consideration. It was fined £3,750 and ordered to pay a £120 statutory surcharge and £930 prosecution costs.

Mr Ghirardello said the club had a licence to hold live music events between 8pm and 11.30 pm but it had failed to carry out checks that the music was not too loud.

On November 15 the noise was so loud that shouted song lyrics, bass guitar, drums and other instruments could be clearly heard through closed double-glazed windows of a nearby resident's home between 10.45 pm and 11.30pm.

After listening to and assessing the noise level, the council issued the noise abatement order, said Mr Ghirardello.

Since the final complaint, the club has hired fewer bands and has employed an acoustic engineer consultant, the court heard.