As a young couple celebrate their nuptials inside on Saturday, August 28, board members will be outside checking whether the decibels generated by amplified music are, as claimed by two neighbours, excessive between 10pm and midnight at the Lodge, Carfraemill.

The late-night site visit was agreed by the board at its meeting in Galashiels on Friday after it granted hotelier Jim Sutherland an occasional licence to hold the event.

The decision was made after two conflicting monitoring reports, collated after wedding receptions on July 3 and 16, were presented by Scottish Borders Council environmental health officers and private sound consultants engaged by the Lodge.

Mr Sutherland has been forced to apply for special licences for a number of pre-booked functions because he is defending an action brought by SBC which seeks an interim interdict to halt him using the marquee.

The council maintains Mr Sutherland no longer has planning consent for the structure because noise levels recorded last summer consistently exceeded the agreed level of 45 decibels, audible at the façade of the nearest residential property at West Hope, occupied by objector Jim Tough.

That case has been sisted (temporarily suspended) at Selkirk Sheriff Court pending resolution of the noise issue and Mr Sutherland recently installed a state-of-the-art JBN Sound Ceiling system, comprising 567 individual loudspeakers, above the dance floor. The system is designed to minimise sound leakage and thus comply with the planning condition.

SBC's experts tested the noise levels over seven 10-minute periods between 10pm and midnight from the front of Mr Tough's house on July 3 when a disco narrowly exceeded limits on four occasions.

Sandy Aitchison, who has taught students about sound level measurement, proposed that members of the Scottish Borders Licensing Board should visit the Lodge at Carfraemill to hear noise levels from Saturday functions for themselves