AN amateur boxing club established in the 1950s is set to benefit if an application due to go before Babergh District Council’s licensing committee is approved this month.

Sudbury’s popular nightspot, Easterns Station Lounge, currently allows the town’s boxing club to hold occasional matches at the venue free of charge, but has to apply for a temporary events licence for each occasion.

Now owner David Pratt has applied to the local authority to make changes to his licence, which would enable the boxing club to stage matches more frequently.

Mr Pratt said: “Sudbury Boxing Club is a superb organisation with about 70 members starting from just 10 years old.

“I volunteered to allow them to use our place free for boxing events, because I really believe we should be doing everything we can to support the club – especially with the added interest in sport which has been generated by the Olympics.

“The boxing club makes a lot of money from an event because we don’t charge them for the venue, so it helps them to top up funds for when they need to buy new equipment.”

But he added: “The only problem I have at the moment is that for me to host a boxing match, I have to put in an application for a temporary licence every time, for which you have to give 10 days’ notice.”

The club’s head coach, Neil Anderson, said having the venue available to them on a regular basis would provide a big boost to the club, adding: “No-one helps us with funding, so we try to make money from events and the cost of hiring a venue can eat into that.

“If we could hold more matches at Easterns, it would make a big difference to us.”

Police have objected to the application as it stands, because of concerns that public safety could be compromised unless proper control measures are put in place to mitigate any risk from the licence changes. The application will be considered at a hearing on August 22.