The owners of a disused theatre say their efforts to reopen the historic venue have been dealt a blow after a neighbour lodged a complaint against their licensing bid.

The Granville Theatre in Ramsgate is due to relaunch next month following a “very stressful” renovation project.

Now, owners Westwood One Theatre Ltd say they have faced a setback after a resident objected to their licensing application, which requested permission to open until 1.30am daily and serve alcohol until 1am.

They say they do not intend to routinely remain open into the early hours, and merely applied for the maximum hours possible to allow for occasional or one-off events.

Joint owner Zahra Tarjomani told KentOnline: “It’s a kick in the teeth.

“We have been working round the clock to meet our deadline.

“We are disappointed because everyone else’s support has been amazing.

“If it’s upheld it will push back the opening date because of the logistics of it all, which is obviously really frustrating.”

The Granville dates back to the 1940s, and was “derelict and mouldy” when Ms Tarjomani bought it for £125,000 in October along with her sister and their business partner Matt Milchard.

Ms Tarjomani added: “I don’t think [the neighbour] understands the nature of putting in a licensing application.

“You have to put in a blanket time to cover any eventuality which is what we were told to do and what we’ve done, and they’ve taken that as gospel that we are open till 1am every day which we’re certainly not.

“I don’t want to be here till 1am every day.”

After posting about the theatre’s troubles on social media, the 32-year-old has received a wave of support.

“The comments on Facebook have been overwhelmingly positive, so it does feel like a very small group of people who are potentially ruining it for a lot of others due to a lack of information,” she explained.

“The general community support has been driving us through the whole project.”

While she does not know the nature of the complaint, Ms Tarjomani insists noise will not be a significant problem. She says the venue was built into a cliff, meaning it is well soundproofed.

“There’s not going to be any noise really other than people exiting,” she said.

“We won’t advocate people getting smashed because we don’t want that in our theatre.

“We have a strict alcohol policy in place - if you're too drunk, you're not coming in.”

The theatre is expected to employ up to 20 people when it opens, and will have a 600-seat auditorium.

Ms Tarjomani continued: “The complainant lives opposite a theatre that’s been there long before those flats were.

“They could have very easily approached us and had a conversation with us and we would have explained to them that’s just how it works - you have to put your absolute max should you ever need it.

“We’re not planning on opening till 1.30am every day or even every weekend.

“It would be on the off-chance that we wanted to do certain random events, weddings or something special.”

The original Granville Theatre opened in 1914 as just an enclosure with a partial roof.

It was damaged beyond repair during the Second World War and a new theatre was built in its place in 1947.

In May 2022, The Granville went on the open market after a community bid was snubbed by the council.

The future of the historic venue was uncertain, until it was bought by Westwood One.