A PARISH council is strongly objecting to a York pub receiving a public entertainment licence because it says villagers' sleep is being ruined by noise already.

Heslington Parish Council has even received a petition from elderly residents against the plans of the Deramore Arms in the village which is hoping to bring in live bands to play at the pub.

Parish council chairwoman Valerie Foote told last night's parish council meeting that there were many people in the village very concerned about the Deramore's application.

She said that though the pub was "specifically for students", it was bordered by retirement flats and almshouses.

"It is completely surrounded by elderly people," Mrs Foote said, adding that music and general noise from the pub already meant that residents were finding it difficult to sleep at night.

"People can hear it in their beds," she said, adding that she had often been round to the pub about noise and was told by the landlord to ring him.

She had tried to do so but had always encountered an engaged tone.

Mrs Foote said: "We as a parish council should be supporting the majority of people around the Deramore."

Parish councillor Brenda Gray said she could regularly hear "shouting and screaming" at night in the Halifax Court area as pub-goers returned home from the Deramore, despite the fact that she lived 700 yards away.

She said that the parish council should "strongly" object to the public entertainment licence application put forward by the Deramore.

Fellow parish councillors agreed.

As far back as 1997, villagers were expressing fears that the Deramore was turning into a student pub, in line with the nearby Charles XII, but the pub has always maintained that it is a traditional local.