GAZETTE & HERALD: RESIDENTS are to continue fighting plans by White Hart Hotel owner Donal O'Dwyer to extend his licence to 3am.

North Wiltshire licensing committee turned down Mr O'Dwyer's application for a longer public entertainment licence last month.

However, he is now preparing to take his application to the Magistrate's Court and feels he's a good chance of victory.

Neighbours claim drunks wake them up most nights after closing time at 1am and say they find smashed glass and vomit on the paths to their houses some mornings.

They also fear more people will travel up through the town to The White Hart to continue drinking on nights out.

However, Mr O'Dwyer said the residents have no proof the problems are caused by people from the White Hart.

Local resident Suzanne Hazelhurst, from Church Street, said: "At the weekend our lives are blighted by the constant flow of drunken White Hart customers who do not use the A4 to disperse but funnel through the residential and conservation areas of Church Street and The Green.

"I noted with interest that although Mr O'Dwyer refuses to believe any of his customers would behave in an untoward manner, yet he has gone to the great expense of protecting his premises with state of the art security systems and bouncers."

Anne Chenevix-Trench, from The Green, said she would not want the licence extended.

"We are not all over 90 here. We are not all killjoys and don't want to ruin people's businesses, but not at the expense of a lot of other people.

"Weekend after weekend, why should you be woken up all the time?

"I am not against people having fun. When I was younger I used to go to nightclubs, but not in a residential area."

Ms Chenevix-Trench said drunk people from the White Hart relieve themselves and vomit in the streets.

"People come staggering out of there and it's not too attractive in a conservation area."

Mr O'Dwyer said the residents had no evidence to back up their allegations. He said their lack of problems since the White Hart had its licence extended to 1am showed there would be no problems extending it to 3am.

"We had similar objections when we wanted to go for our 1am licence," he said. "There was a feeling the public order would be terrible.

"We have held the 1am licence for about nine months and we have had the police out once and have had no problems with Environmental Health.

"We run a very tight ship and it's a nice place for people to go."

Mr O'Dwyer said there were also no problems with the pub being situated in a residential area.

"All areas are residential to someone. No matter where you are it's residential. The annoying thing is the customers are desperate for it. I would not be doing this if the customers and the public didn't want it."

Coun John Ireland, who represented the town council at the licensing committee, said he would be attending Magistrate's Court to represent the residents' concerns.

"I shall oppose the plans because this is in the middle of a residential area and it is particularly unsuitable.

"There's already been a large amount of criminal damage in the area which you cannot attribute to the White Hart but it's a reasonable guess."