POLICE in Darlington have condemned as "short sighted" a bid by one of the town's pubs 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 to 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 say the number of assaults and public order incidents in the town centre have dropped over the last five years.

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

Chief Inspector 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 Borough 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 Licensed Victuallers Association are due to discuss the Yates's application at their monthly meeting tomorrow.

The application was due to be heard at a council licensing meeting tomorrow, but that has now been postponed until November 1.

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

But he said: "We do already have experience in running wine lodges elsewhere in the country that have late licences which have been very successful."