BUSINESSMAN Marcus Kravis yesterday (Thursday) vowed to fight threatened court action over alleged failures to control noise at a popular Minehead entertainment venue owned by his company. West Somerset District Council believes prosecution is the only way to secure an adequate noise control system in the town's Queen's Hall pub, having already given owners Lincolnshire Automatics Limited almost two years to comply. Members of the authority's planning committee will be asked to give the go-ahead officially for legal action when they meet on Thursday. Ian Timms, the council's environment health and licensing team manager will tell the committee: "My feeling is that time has now run out for the Queen's Hall and we must progress down an enforcement route." He said the owners should be prosecuted for breach of planning control as permission to convert the former music hall into a pub was only given subject to a range of conditions, all of which had to be approved in writing by the council before work even began on the conversion. But Mr Kravis, who has invested tens of thousands of pounds into tackling the noise issue, told the Free Press: "We are very disappointed that the council appears ready to go down the route of prosecution. "It is not as though we have sat back and done nothing. "We have done everything we can to address this problem and at this moment in time it would be uneconomic and unviable to do any more. "But we are prepared for court action, ready to fight this and confident of our case." Mr Kravis employs around 20 people at the venue and said his main concern was for the staff who would be worried about their future. But he insisted that closure was an "absolute worse case scenario" and certainly not a current consideration. The conditions imposed under the original planning approval were designed to control noise and odours from the premises, and included others relating to disabled access, self-closing door mechanisms and waste storage and disposal. But members of the planning committee will be told that not all the conditions had been complied with, despite the premises being open for business for nearly two years. Mr Timms will tell the committee the council had served a 28-day breach of condition notice on the pub in July last year in a bid to force the owners to carry out sound insulation at the premises. At that time work had already started on the installation of various measures, including a sound attenuator to control the level of amplified noise, using a specialist firm called Noisestop Systems. But subsequent tests by council officers found that noise levels in neighbouring properties, particularly in the living accommodation above The Strand, were above those recommended as "good" and "reasonable" by British Standards. Council tests recorded a noise pollution range of between 34.5 decibels and 39.9 decibels. The recommended limit was 35 decibels. In a report Mr Timms will state: "The Queen's Hall is currently unable to comply with the applied planning condition in my view. "The work that has been carried out has not remedied the noise issues and cannot therefore be viewed as suitable. "In addition, no formal details have been submitted for the property above Merlins so it is not possible to make judgement on whether this area of the building complies. "I can see no possibility of the Queen's Hall complying without further work and this will take a significant amount of time to achieve." He will conclude: "The recorded levels of noise are above those recommended by the relevant British Standards and it is considered that the works which have been carried out have not achieved a standard whereby the amenities of the occupiers of the adjacent resident property above The Strand are not being adversely affected by music and other noises generated by the Queen's Hall. "It is recommended that in order to remedy the breach of planning control, which is having an adverse effect on the occupier of the adjacent residential property, the council proceeds to seek a prosecution in the courts regarding the failure to meet the requirements of the planning condition regarding the submission and implementation of a suitable sound insulation scheme." Councillors will be told officers do not believe it necessary to take legal action over a further condition which sought to control odours from the kitchen area as that was deemed to be "a lesser problem".