COUNCILLORS are being asked to restrict the opening hours of a Weymouth town centre pub to 11.30pm - days after granting it a licence to serve alcohol until 3am.

Borough council officers are recommending that a planning condition stating the Swan in St Thomas Street must close at 11.30pm should remain, despite a recent licensing committee decision to permit drinking for a further three-and-a-half hours every day.

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon applied to remove the clause, set down when the pub opened in 1998, but members of Weymouth and Portland's planning and traffic committee are being advised to refuse the move at a meeting on Wednesday.

A report to councillors claims that lifting the planning restriction would encourage drunkenness and result in sleepless nights for people living nearby.

Pub manager Kim Newstead said: "It seems ironic that they would object to this being lifted. We are a non-smoking pub, don't play music and about 50 per cent of our turnover is food sales.

"We are like a restaurant. We are not a nightclub and people do not come out dancing and singing. I am confident councillors will reject this view, especially as nearby places like Rendezvous and Yates's are allowed to open late.

"The whole point of the new Licensing Act is to give licensees the choice about when to open."

She added that The Swan would only open after midnight on bank holidays or special occasions if the condition was removed.

A spokesman for JD Wetherspoon said: "It does concern us that the council is looking to rescind the later opening hours, which we were delighted to be granted."

The borough's planning, economy and development manager Simon Williams said the council received objections from Weymouth Civic Society and a developer who is building eight flats next to the pub.

In a report to the planning and traffic committee, Mr Williams says removing the planning clause would prove 'detrimental' to nearby residents.

He also highlighted the committee's recent decision to refuse a new pub at the former Courts store in St Thomas Street - only doors away from The Swan - because it could have disturbed residents.

Mr Williams said: "Whilst the use of the property as a public house is accepted in this location and is supported by local plan policy for mixed uses in the town centre, the need to restrict the hours of opening is considered to be a valid planning issue and the condition reasonable and justified taking account of residential and hotel properties immediately adjacent and close by.

"I therefore cannot support this application and suggest that the condition as originally imposed be retained."