An offer to reduce the hours when alcohol could be sold has failed to win the Weymouth Kebab House the licence it wants.

The business had originally applied to sell drinks alongside take-away meals from 11am until 6am on Fridays and Saturdays and until 5am for the rest of the week.

At a council hearing on Monday it offered to reduce this to 1am, or to accept a temporary licence – but councillors decided against alcohol sales at any time.

Agent for the business, Phil Watts, said that at least one other take-away in the area already had a licence until 5.30am and argued that the Kebab House would be responsible about who it served. He said that for most of the time it was unlikely to be open until the early hours and said there had been no issues at the business since new owners had taken over and argued that it should be given the same chance to trade as others in the area.

Mr Watts said the council and the police were unable to produce any public order figures and were relying on an order which was outdated and had not been reviewed when it should have been.

The Dorset Council licencing committee was told that the ward is covered by an order which presumes against any new applications for alcohol sales because of a history of public order offences.

The Cumulative Impact Area of Melcombe Regis had been due for review last year but, because of changes to the local councils this did not happen and will now be looked at again for 2021.

Both the police and licencing officers, together with Weymouth Town Council, had objected to the change in the licence.

Licencing officer for Dorset Council Aileen Powell said that the business nearby, which is allowed to sell alcohol until 5.30am, had been granted the permission in 2005, before the current Cumulative Impact Area had come into force.

The policy says that new licences should only be agreed "in exceptional circumstances and with justifiable reasons given," she said.

In their decision notice the committee said it had not been persuaded there were exceptional reasons to grant the licence, taking into account the police evidence which suggested another alcohol licence in the area would be undesirable.

Police officers who appeared at the hearing said the Weymouth ward was still one of the busiest in Dorset for public order offences, violence and criminal damage, most of which happened between 1am and 5am, although it was said they had not experienced problems with the management of the Weymouth Kebab House.

The application for the variation in licence, from Emrah and Osman Tanyel, said that the business has full CCTV and anyone who appears to be intoxicated would not be served with those causing any form of nuisance being barred.

Weymouth town councillor Ken Whatley said his authority believed that even one extra premises in the area selling alcohol late could cause more anti-social behaviour.

“There is enough premises in the area which are already open late – we would still object even to the earlier time being proposed,” he said, afterwards welcoming the committee decision as “common sense.”