A CHRISTCHURCH bar and restaurant has applied for a later-opening licence which they say will enable them to be more respectful to neighbours.

 

Soho, at Church Street in Christchurch, wants to extend its opening hours from 1.30am to 3am on Fridays and Saturdays which it says will allow for a more natural egress of patrons into the street and should, therefore, decrease noise levels.

 

 

Owner Christopher Rice told the Daily Echo that as well as being a commercially viable option, the later-opening time should help decrease the number of people leaving the premises at the same time.

 

"When we get to closing time and we're having a good evening, we are in a situation where we are turfing out a lot of people in one hit," he said. "It is a more natural exit from the premises with people drifting down the road, as it where."

 

The matter is set to go before the council's licensing sub-committee on April 6.

 

Their application comes in the wake of claims from business owners that there has been a rise in antisocial behaviour in the town centre in recent months, with some revellers vomiting and urinating in the street outside shops.

 

Resident Lynn Greenhill has objected to the application.

 

She wrote: "I am horrified to think that any premises in the town centre would be allowed to stay open until 3am and am quite sure that an extra one-and-a-half hours of drinking will cause even more problems to the local residents in surrounding properties."

 

Town centre ward councillor Peter Hall told the Daily Echo: "A lot of residents are concerned. They don't like being disturbed late at night.

 

"There is a lot of mess and disturbance in the town centre and it has got worse in the last 12 months.

 

"People just seem to want to drink themselves silly sometimes. Some of them can get quite nasty once they have had a few drinks. I think 3am is very late indeed."

 

Councillor Hall also said that he feared an even later licence could jeopardise the town's tourist industry and put off holiday-makers coming to the town on account of the associated late-night behaviour from revellers.

 

A business owner, who asked not to be named, said: "It is going to cause more problems potentially. We're already battling with these sickness incidents.

 

"Extending it is only going to make it a lot worse."

 

Mr Rice said his company makes every effort to ensure the shop fronts are kept clean and has "a brilliant track record" in terms of antisocial behaviour and shows respect to residents at all times.