POLICE have said a city centre takeaway should not be allowed to extend its opening hours until 5am.

The owners of Fireaway Pizza in Angel Street, Worcester, have asked Worcester City Council again if it can extend its opening hours until 5am on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday every week.

West Mercia Police has revealed it has “much concern” about Fireaway Pizza’s plans and said the takeaway had not yet shown “sufficient assurances” that it could handle any potential late-night disorder.

The takeaway currently opens until 1am every day – with hours restricted after a request to open for a further four hours was turned down by the council 12 months ago.

Fireaway Pizza opened last August in chaotic scenes with West Mercia Police forced to close the city centre road after a procession of firebreathers and luxury cars met smoke bombs, a DJ and crowds flocking to Angel Street to be one of the first 100 to grab a free pizza.

Police said this “poorly managed” event, which the force said wasted precious resources with officers having to enforce a road closure and deal with the large crowds, and a failure to work with the relevant authorities meant it still could not support any extension to the takeaway’s opening hours.

West Mercia Police also criticised the owners for including information in the current application which would conflict with its current licence and actually make the potential for disorder worse.

Police said the original licence was granted on the stipulation that the takeaway’s self-described “spacious” layout and CCTV would ‘get more people off the streets’ and “help massively” with cutting down crime and disorder.

However, in the new application which asks for the opening hours to be extended, the takeaway’s bosses say they would close much of the seating area after midnight – a move that police say would just push people back onto the streets and create bigger crowds and congregators.

Last year, the city council had turned down a request by the takeaway to open until 5am after police had raised concerns the late-night hours would fuel trouble in one of the city centre’s worst crime hotspots.

Officers challenged the application saying Angel Place was one of the city’s main anti-social behaviour hotspots at night and allowing another late-night venue to open would only add to a rise in crime, noise, traffic and litter.

The objection from police came in spite of both neighbouring takeaways Shakeeys and Best Kebab House having 6am and 5am closing times.

However, police did signal last year that officers would be open to reviewing the decision in 12-to-18-months’ time to see if the takeaway opening had led to a rise in crime and anti-social behaviour.

Worcester City Council’s licensing sub-committee meets in the Guildhall on Tuesday, August 29 to discuss the application.