A RECORDING of rowdy and offensive customers outside a pub has helped persuade the local council to reject a lap-dancing club’s application for later opening hours.

The recording, played at the hearing on Wednesday, was made by a resident of King Street, Canterbury, who was among 76 people objecting to Scribes’ application to stay open until 1.30am.

Niall McKernan, who made the recording with his digital camera late one night, told the city council’s licensing panel that it was typical of the disturbance neighbours often suffered from the pub.

Scribes, which is in King Street, is currently allowed to stay open until 11.30pm from Monday to Saturday, but had applied to the licensing panel to close at 1.30am.

The application, which was turned down, prompted one of the biggest protests seen in the district since the Licensing Act came into force last year.

The objectors said that King Street was predominantly residential and that the later hours would cause them more misery and sleepless nights.

Mr McKernan added: “The noise and swearing is not what we want to be subjected to at any time and certainly not at 1am."

Penny Francis, chairman of the St Peter’s Association, urged the panel to take into account Culture Minister Tessa Jowell’s advice that the public must win “hands down” in cases of later licensing hours.

Mrs Francis added that there were up to eight children living near the pub whose sleep would be badly affected if the application was granted.

But barrister John Thornton, for Scribes, said that the panel should take into account that neither the police nor the environmental health department had made any objections to the application.

He argued that the pub was well run and that the panel needed to consider the effect on the business, which had rival pubs with later opening hours nearby.

He added that the requested increase was “moderate” and would allow customers to disperse more quietly.