WANTAGE residents have reacted with alarm after developers were granted a late-night drinking licence for the former Regent Cinema.

H & H Entertainment, based in Grove Technology Park, wants to turn the empty Newbury Street cinema into a late-night venue for the community – offering a range of entertainment from amateur boxing nights to comedy evenings.

The license will allow the club – called Shush – to serve alcohol to up to 500 people until 2am on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

But the development is still dependent on planning permission which is to be decided later this year.

People who live nearby have expressed concern over noise and drunken behaviour.

Hannah Godfrey, 27, who lives in Post Office Lane, directly behind the cinema, said: “If this goes ahead we will just have to move. We are not going to be able to sleep.

“There are a lot of antisocial problems in Wantage due to late-night drinking and I worry this is going to add to it.

“We often have people come into the car park to use it as a toilet. We have even caught people having sex.

“Everyone keeps saying Wantage is such a lovely little market town but it is not.”

Roy Bond, 79, also of Post Office Lane, said: “The noise and disturbance is going to make it quite disastrous.

“Even when they had it as a cinema you could hear the sound in our garden.

“It is the destruction of what is a totally quiet environment late at night.

“People talk of the cinema being on Market Square, but that is just the entrance. The main body comes right into residential accommodation. It is a lack of consideration for people that live here.”

Director of H & H Entertainment, Steve Head, said the company had been working closely with the police to ensure the licence did not become a detriment to the community.

He said: “We think this is great news for the town as we move a step closer to delivering a community venue to Wantage and the surrounding areas.

“This adds to the immense support we have already received.

“We would welcome discussions with the other arts and entertainment organisation that are clearly looking for a venue.”

Campaigners had hoped the building would reopen as a cinema, but Mr Head said it was “not sustainable” as a business.