FANS will go head to head with residents at a meeting to decide the future of Dorchester Town FC’s marquee.

An application for the Prince’s Marquee will go before West Dorset District Council’s planning committee on Thursday.

The club is looking to extend planning permission for a further 12 months but residents have complained about the noise coming from the venue.

Fans and the club say the marquee is a popular facility that brings much needed extra revenue in.

But residents say they have had enough of putting up with music sounding out from the canvas.

Representatives from both sides will be present at the planning meeting.

The football club initially applied for permanent permission for the structure, which was erected in June 2009 but the application has since been varied to a further 12 months temporary permission.

A report by planning officers recommends that planning permission for the marquee be extended for a further three months but with conditions banning live music and restricting the amount of noise.

Officers say this would allow the council to see how things go with the new limitations in place before coming to a further decision.

A total of 43 residents from nearby Castle Park have signed a petition objecting to the planning application, while 395 people have signed a petition in support of the football club.

Both residents and representatives from the football club’s Supporters Trust plan to attend the meeting.

Sharon Hearn, who runs the marquee, said the club had spent a significant amount of money on a noise limiter for the venue and was doing all it could to consider the interests of local residents.

She said she was becoming ‘frustrated’ by the constant barrage of opposition and warned that the club and Dorchester as a whole would lose out if permission for the marquee was denied.

Mrs Hearn, wife of club chairman Shuan, said: “We are working so hard over there and it just feel like we are being hit up against a brick wall really. We are just trying to do something good.”

In a statement the Dorchester Town Supporters Trust board welcomed elements in the planning report that suggested the council was prepared to negotiate over the marquee.

The statement continues: “It is correctly acknowledged that there is substantial support in favour of the application as evidenced by the correspondence received by the council, a large petition, letters sent to the Echo, and online through a Facebook group.”