RESIDENTS in Bishop’s Waltham have successfully opposed plans for Sainsbury’s to sell alcohol at its proposed petrol station.

The company had applied for a licence but the application was withdrawn before a licensing committee last Friday (April 11).

Sainsbury has taken over the petrol station on Winchester Road close to its planned superstore at Abbey Mill and sought permission to sell alcohol from 6am to midnight every day.

Local people were unhappy about the opening hours and that the forecourt shop would sell alcohol, unlike the previous petrol station which also shut at 10pm.

Barry Tanner, of Victoria Road, said: “There are four licensed premises within a 300m radius plus four public houses. We cannot see the need for any more.”

Mr and Mrs G Pink, of Winchester Road, wrote to the council: “To have alcohol on the premises from 6am to midnight will encourage drinking once the pubs have turned out. People will be coming from miles around to use these late-night drinking and shopping facilities. We do not want this in our beautiful medieval town. This is a residential area not an industrial estate!”

Margaret Pickthorne, of The Priory, said: “It is totally unnecessary and inappropriate for alcohol to be sold from a petrol station forecourt.

“Although it may seem that Bishop’s Waltham is not a particularly difficult area for social problems we have had a continuous problem with bored young people with nowhere to go. Late-night retail with the chance to purchase alcohol is too tempting for young people looking for entertainment.”

The parish council also opposed the proposal because it would encourage public nuisance and crime and disorder, although in its application Sainsbury said it would install CCTV and put up signs asking customers to leave quietly.

Cllr Robert Shields said: “It's actually quite difficult to oppose a licence because you can't make the case that this place can't have a licence, because of potential noise or whatever, but then the place up the road can.

“On the face of it though, this does seem like a small victory.”

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said: “We have decided to withdraw the licensing application to sell alcohol from our new petrol station in Bishop's Waltham and do not intend to resubmit the application at this time.

"Whilst this would be a valuable service for our customers, we understand there were concerns regarding the sale of alcohol from the petrol station."