A STUDENT bar has been refused permission to extend its hours during a University pub crawl event following policing problems last year.

Inferno at the Lansdowne had wanted to stay open until 3am on May 6 to cater for students taking part in the University’s ‘Block Party’ event.

But the council’s licensing committee refused this request after hearing evidence from Dorset Police. In a statement provided to the committee, Inspector Matt Baxter said this event had caused them problems the previous year because of the large numbers of students taking part.

He said: “In the early hours of Sunday...the final venues closed their doors and in rather a short space of time there were what seemed like a couple of hundred students egressing onto the streets.

“There was no control or organised marshalling apparent and the students very quickly spilled onto the street and across the pavements.

“This caused the street to be blocked by pedestrians loitering in the road and on the pavement and drunken anti-social behaviour from the students.”

And he added: “Although the block party was not believed to be directly connected to the high number of public order incidents it did have an effect on the capacity to deal with them and we did have a few problems with some of the block party goers who were awkward and who were making it difficult by refusing to leave, minor drunk and disorderly offences and anti-social behaviour.”

Cllr Andrew Morgan, chairman of the licensing committee, said: “It was felt that granting this request for a later closing time would make the situation in the town centre worse.

“The police gave evidence on the issues they experienced last year.

We felt these issues were real and we weren’t prepared to grant it.”