LICENSING chiefs have refused a Bournemouth off-licence permission to sell alcohol until 1am, following objections from Dorset police and three town centre ward councillors.

Good Choice on Old Christchurch Road applied to vary its licence to extend the hours it can sell alcohol from 11pm until 1am, seven days a week.

But Cllrs Dave Smith, Bob Chapman and Mike Green all objected to the application.

In a joint statement to the borough’s licensing board, they said: “The town centre of Bournemouth has the highest violent crime rate in the whole of Dorset and it is particularly bad in the early hours of the morning, exactly when these premises wish to open.

“Most of this violent crime is linked to alcohol and drunkenness. Allowing the sale of more alcohol in this location and at this time may add to the problem.

“There are numerous problems with young people who cannot get into bars and clubs and seek to buy alcohol from premises such as this in order to, quite simply, get drunk. This must be resisted.”

St Derek McKerl from Dorset police’s Operation Protect warned that extending the hours for the sale of alcohol would undermine the council’s own licensing policy.

He stressed that the Good Choice was situated within an area identified as experiencing the highest levels of alcohol related crime and disorder, due to a high concentration of licensed premises.

Despite the applicant, Arasaratnam Sunthararajan, insisting that “the proposed variation would not have any impact on any of the licensing objectives”, licensing board members refused to grant the variation of premises licence.