A BID by a Kidderminster pub to adopt nightclub-style opening hours has been thrown out by licensing chiefs following a flood of objections by harassed residents.

More than 70 residents in Park Lane, Larches Road and Wood Street wrote to Wyre Forest District Council objecting to the application by the Watermill, Park Lane, for variation of its public entertainment licence.

Under the variation, the club would have been allowed to stage singing, dancing and music until 2am on Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings and until 1am on other weekdays.

Adrian Beavis, a professional DJ, of Park Lane, said on Monday: "Since the public entertainment licence was granted four or five years ago we have had problems with rowdy, drunken youths from the age of 16 up walking down Park Lane urinating and doing other things in people's alleyways, drinking in the street, leaving broken bottles on the ground and causing damage to vehicles in Park Lane."

He told the meeting how he was forced to make a citizen's arrest in August after a 16-year-old, who told police he had been drinking at the Watermill, vandalised a neighbour's car.

He added: "I'm not saying all the people who go to the Watermill are drunks and thugs - it's probably 10 per cent."

Kidderminster police inspector Alan Baldwin said two out of three studies he had seen where town centre pubs had adopted nightclub hours had shown a subsequent increase in crime and disorder. In the case of a pub in Aylesbury, crime and disorder had risen by 150 per cent between 11pm and midnight.

Sharon McCann, acting for the pub, said there was no evidence linking anti-social behaviour in general in Park Lane to the Watermill and the road was commonly used as a short cut to the town centre.

She added they were amending the application for a variation late night opening into Saturday, Sunday and Monday only.