POLICE in Darlington have condemned as 'short sighted' a plan by a pub to extend its drinking hours.

Yates's Wine Lodge in Skinnergate has submitted a bid to the council to remain open for an extra hour until 1am on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Police chiefs fear that if the extension is given the go-ahead it could open the floodgates for other pubs to make similar applications and lead to an increase in trouble on town centre streets.

Residents from the Arcadia Court sheltered housing complex, off Skinnergate, have also objected to the plan and collected a 17 signature protest petition.

Police point to the fact that the number of assaults and public order incidents in the town centre have dropped over the past five years.

They also say that currently there is a 'clear gap' between the closing times of pubs on Skinnergate and Darlington's nightclubs, which allows pub drinkers to leave town before the clubs kick out.

Chief Insp Peter Davis, of Darlington police, said he expected that if the licence was granted another 20 to 30 applications would follow from other pubs, which the police would find difficult to defend.

He said: "It is very short sighted of Yates's to make this application. I do believe that one way or another there would be an increase in public disorder if it goes ahead.

"The image of the town centre would suffer as a consequence."

Barry Pearson, commercial and licensing manager with Darlington Council, said: "We are not aware of any problems being caused by the premises at the moment, but we will look into the concerns raised."

Members of Darlington's Lic-ensed Victuallers' Association were to discuss the Yates's application at their monthly meeting.

The application is due to be heard at a council licensing meeting on November 1.

A spokesman for Yates's said it could not comment on the Darlington application specifically.

However he added: "We do already have experience in running wine lodges elsewhere in the country that have late licenses, which have been very successful.