A SECOND Didcot pub can now serve alcohol until 3am, despite fears about noise and public nuisance.

Members of South Oxfordshire District Council’s licensing committee have allowed the Wallingford Arms in Broadway to stay open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, 2am on Thursdays and 1am during the rest of the week.

The decision came after landlord David Brewerton said the pub could only survive if it was allowed to serve alcohol late into the night.

No residents formally objected to the new opening hours, but neighbours said they had been plagued by noise and antisocial behaviour from young people leaving the pub.

One Ernest Road resident, who asked not to be named, said: “They all come out of the pub and go down this road — and we don’t want the noise. The police don’t seem to do anything about any trouble.”

Other neighbours complained of glasses left smashed by the side of the road and pubgoers parking along the residential street. One said: “They cannot seem to talk to each other, but have to shout and scream.”

Mr Brewerton said turnover at the Wallingford Arms had fallen 11 per cent since January, and punters regularly left the pub to carry on drinking at Broadways, which already has a 3am licence.

He said the Wallingford Arms had been allowed to open until 3am for 40 special events in the last two years and there had been no problems.

Mr Brewerton added: “Didcot needs a late night trade. People tend to travel out of the area to Oxford or Reading. Nationally, 3am isn’t late any more. In big cities, places open until 5am or 6am.”

Police raised no objection to the later opening hours after Mr Brewerton agreed to install more CCTV cameras, hire bouncers and serve beer in plastic glasses.

The council vetoed live music and discos. Over the Easter Bank Holiday, one nearby resident complained her child had been woken by loud music, and another told they council that they had “put up with it for long enough”.

Mr Brewerton said the drum ‘n’ bass night that caused the complaints had been a mistake and would not be repeated.

Didcot Chamber of Commerce spokesman Jeanette Howse said businesses were affected by late night antisocial behaviour.

She said: “The only concern we have with later licences is if trouble spills out on to the street and properties get damaged.

“However good staff are inside, they can never allow for what is going to happen outside.”