Applications for 24-hour alcohol sales considered

Applications for three petrol stations in Sussex to sell alcohol 24 hours a day are to go before councillors.

Motor Fuel Limited wants to extend its off licence hours at the Brooklands Service Station on Brighton Road, Worthing, and Worthing Service Station on Sompting Avenue, with Worthing Borough Councillors considering it on Thursday.

The company has made the same application for its service station in Seaford, East Sussex, which will be looked at by Lewes councillors on Monday.

The current licences allow alcohol sales between 06:00 and 23:00.

The South Broadwater Residents' Association is objecting to the Sompting Avenue application "in the strongest possible terms", citing what it claimed would be an increase in crime, noise and groups of drinkers attracting drug dealers.

Sussex Police has objected to the Brooklands application, saying it would have a "negative impact" on the local community, as it is "located within an area for street drinking and youth anti-social behaviour".

Mike Whiting has lived near the Brooklands site for 40 years.

"On the other side of the petrol station there's a park," he told BBC Radio Sussex. "it's going to attract all sorts of ne'er-do-wells, and then there'll be an area where you can get drunk and drugs taken.

"It'll become a nasty area to police, it'll change the character of this area completely."

Svitlana Westgate shared some of Mr Whiting's concerns.

She said: "They'll create a criminal space here, because they will be drinking at night, shouting, fighting."

But Natasha Gilliam said she would be prepared to give the applicants the benefit of the doubt.

"It's not a significantly residential area," she said, "so some of the concerns feel quite unfounded.

"Very late at night you don't get a lot of traffic, I can't see it's going to cause a significant increase.

"It is a bit of a wait and see, people seem very good at anticipating things to worry about when maybe there isn't going to be anything to worry about."

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