Cheshire East has granted a premises licence for a new restaurant and bar at the former Barclays Bank building in Alsager.

The application for The Vault had been opposed by some local residents on the grounds it would create a noise nuisance and disturb nearby neighbours late at night.

Two residents turned up at the licensing act sub-committee hearing to object, with one claiming the application for the Crewe Road premises was for a bar first and a restaurant second.

The old Barclays Bank which the building has been converted from.

Objector Chris Morgan told the hearing at the council's Westfields HQ in Sandbach: "There are residents at the back of there who I represent, with elderly and with young children, that are going to be severely impacted by the noise and nuisance of this and the existing licence terms that I saw on the planning application would have done the job absolutely fine.

"This is a late night bar, because other restaurants in Alsager do not have a drug diary, they do not have security outside because they don't need to because they are restaurants. This is a bar primarily and a restaurant second."

Ian Donaldson, who is landlord of the Crewe Road premises, told the hearing huge investment had gone into the building 'not just to facilitate this business but to facilitate the existing businesses on the first floor as well'.

He said The Vault was aimed at a 'higher-end clientele'.

"It's mainly for families and adults to use this as an eatery but obviously the drinks are really important as a part of that," he said.

He added: "The reason for having door people, and I don't think we'll need them because of the clientèle we will be attracting, we've done all this because we didn't want to have any problems like these.

"We wanted to try and show we are doing everything to make this place safe for the people that are in there, safe for families to be in there at certain times, we're wanting to evidence that we're cutting no corners on this.

"We've invested every way we possibly can to try and do the right things.

"It's a restaurant bar, it is table service, everybody's going to be seated. It is an eatery."

Brad Lancaster, director of The Vault, said there would be no live music at the venue. The DJ would be using the venue's state-of-the-art sound system.

The hearing took place on Monday September 26 and the council's decision was published on Thursday, October 6.

The licence was granted with the permitted opening hours being noon to midnight Thursday to Saturday and noon to 11pm on Sundays.

A number of conditions were imposed including the outside area will not have any speakers and no music will be played in this area.