A vineyard will now be able to hold wine-tasting events - despite fears mourners at a neighbouring church graveyard will be disturbed by people “laughing and drinking”.

Villagers in Hothfield, near Ashford, had opposed a bid by the Nine Oaks Vineyard in Church Lane for a premises licence to sell alcohol.

But Ashford Borough Council’s licensing sub-committee has voted to grant the licence with conditions to safeguard against problems.

Thirteen letters of objection were sent to the local authority from immediate neighbours. Many highlighted that St Margaret’s still has burials at its churchyard.

One of the village protesters, Hothfield parish councillor Simon Brock, told KentOnline after the meeting: “The area of the church that is closest to the licensable area is where most recent burials are - so where you have most numbers of people visiting their graves and people who are being buried there.

“So there could be a potential conflict between a happy event one side of the fence and a sad event on the other.”

Villager Jennifer Boorman said in a written submission to the council: “Families visiting graves would be greatly disturbed by people drinking, laughing and generally making a lot of noise.”

Some open-air theatre events were held at the vineyard last summer but locals said these had 20 to 40 visitors and caused little disturbance.

However, the applicants also plan to expand these events to have 250 visitors throughout this summer, which has sparked concerns about potential traffic problems on narrow Church Lane.

Another objector, Sheila Flynn, told the sub-committee: “Church Lane has a high proportion of vulnerable road users - that is pedestrians, dog walkers, cyclists and people who are mobility impaired. The road is only wide enough for one vehicle and there is a blind bend and crest.

“There could potentially be hundreds of people leaving an event and most people would come by car.“

Fellow villager Alan Guy argued that the junction of Church Lane with Fridd Lane is extremely difficult to negotiate.

He said in a statement to the council: “We have personally witnessed a number of accidents resulting from people exiting the lane onto a fast road, as a result of a limited view of traffic emerging from the right.”

The vineyard’s owners, husband and wife team Martyn Pollock and Helen Matheson-Pollock, applied for a premises licence to sell alcohol from 10am to 6pm from Thursdays to Sundays.

They reduced that from the original request of 10am to 10pm seven days a week as villagers’ concerns were increasingly expressed. All objections to the council were written before the application was changed on March 7.

The couple also want to hold pre-booked small group vineyard tours of 60 to 90 minutes, with wine tasting. These would be up to twice a day between Thursdays and Sundays and for 10 to 30 people at a time.

No complaints were received by the council about noise from the three events held on the site last year.

Mr Pollock, who is also a Hothfied parish councillor, told the sub-committee: “We have made significant concessions over the hours. In terms of wine tasting, it would be 50 millilitres of four different wines so the total would be 200 millilitres.”

He said that no other alcohol would be available for consumption on the premises and added: “Anyone showing signs of intoxication would not be served.”

Mrs Matheson-Pollock told the sub-committee that the sale of alcohol would be limited to bottles of wine produced on the vineyard, for consumption off the premises.

She explained to KentOnline: “We live very close to the vineyard ourselves and we don’t want any of our activities to negatively impact on local residents.

“We want to share the vineyard with our local community and the broader community through a small foray into vineyard tours.”

The couple, who have run the business for four years, stress that they would avoid their events and tours clashing with church events and would alter their schedule when needed.

They added that most visitors would come in by minibus and parking would be within the vineyard premises.

The sub-committee granted the licence on March 26 with conditions, including that the council should be liaised with for large events and records kept of any incidents.

Appropriate barriers, signs and marshalling should be undertaken to match the scale of an event.

Alcohol should be consumed within designated areas and supervised by staff.

The vineyard launched its first wines last year - but until now these could only be sold to retailers.