A court was warned that the innovative Snoozebox portable hotel planned for Noble’s Park for this year’s TT could pull out altogether after its application for a drinks licence was thrown out.

But Snoozebox insisted after the licensing committee hearing on Thursday that pulling out was not really an option, as the company had a duty of care to the 700 people who have already booked rooms for the fortnight.

The licensing court rejected an application for a temporary liquor licence to 2am after hearing that the landlord, Douglas Corporation, was not supporting the scheme.

In email communications read by the committee, Douglas Council said it understood that this would be a bed-only or B&B arrangement and could see no justification for further availability of alcohol in Noble’s Park.

Advocate for Snoozebox Vicki Unsworth said the venture would make a loss and warned: ‘If they don’t have a restaurant facility then they may pull from the site altogether.’

Ms Unsworth explained that the restaurant for which the licence was sought would be in a marquee outside the hotel units. She said the whole site would be contained, surrounded by a fence and manned by security. She insisted that Snoozebox had made it clear to Douglas Corporation that there would be a restaurant on the site providing food and beverages to its customers and the general public. The Corporation had not actually framed an objection to the application but was not going to support it, she claimed: ‘They were aware of the set-up but not perhaps to the extent that there would be an application for a liquor licence.’

It was ‘very unfortunate’ that the liquor licence was not raised at an earlier stage – well before this, the last licensing committee before the TT – she conceded. She said Snoozebox had not been informed as to what the corporation’s concerns were until the very last minute and she questioned the validity of the council’s decision, claiming that in the hiatus caused by the local government elections, it had been made not by the full council but by a committee chairman.


The application was made by Grill in the Park, which would have been the designated official and licensee.

Speaking after the hearing, Snoozebox’s Steve Holland insisted that pulling out at this stage was not really an option. ‘We have a duty of care to the people who have already booked rooms. It would not be an option at all,’ he said.

A total of 700 rooms have been booked over the course of the TT fortnight, with the hotel itself having a capacity of 240 per night.

Mr Holland described Douglas Corporation’s stance as a ‘misunderstanding’, adding: ‘Genuinely there was no attempt to sneak this in through the back door.’

He said the aim had always been to have not a retail area but a hospitality area with waiter service, allowing people to have a drink with their meal.

Chairman of the borough’s regeneration and community committee Councillor Stephen Pitts said he was unaware that Snoozebox had wanted a drinks licence – until the Examiner contacted him after the licensing committee meeting. ‘I thought they were just providing breakfast,’ he said.

Proprietor of the Noble’s Park Cafe, Sean O’Connell, who hit the headlines last year after winning Channel 4’s Come Dine with Me show, welcomed the licensing committee’s decision.

He claimed local traders would have lost out if the 120-seat licensed restaurant, run by a company from off-island, had been given the go-ahead. He said: ‘I’m delighted by this result. I’m convinced they were trying to sneak this through.’

But Grill in the Park proprietor Stuart McMurdo said that Surrey-based Snoozebox would potentially bring 700 extra people to the island and the benefits would be shared around with local traders. Both suppliers and staff for the restaurant would be Manx, he said.

The Snoozebox units are due to arrive on the ferry on Thursday.


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