A PETROL station on a busy Newport road will be allowed to sell alcohol, but not 24 hours a day, as originally proposed.

Sinclair Services has been warned that if newly-approved arrangements for its Corporation Road site impact on residents, they will be brought back before the city council’s licensing committee.

The company applied for a licence to sell alcohol 24/7, and objections from Gwent Police and the council’s licensing department were withdrawn after conditions were agreed.

It recognised that a 24-hour licence was a cause for concern, and offered a 6am-11pm limit, but residents continue to believe the proposal will add to anti-social behaviour, leading to what one - Malcolm Morgan - said would be “more noise, more dust, and more disruption.”

Barrister Roy Light, for owners Sinclair Garages Limited, argued at a Newport council licensing sub-committee meeting that the police should be the committee’s main source of advice, and “the police are saying they are content this licence be granted, provided these conditions are put in there.”

These are that a night hatch operate from 11pm-6am, and all CCTV images are retained for at least 28 days. The council’s licensing department asked that all staff be fully trained under the Licensing Act, a Challenge 25 policy be used, and staff log details of occasions when they refuse to sell someone alcohol.

Twelve letters of objection were received by the council, citing street loitering, rowdiness and noise as problems.

Mr Morgan told the sub-committee that drivers using the site, and their passengers, regularly urinated on ground at the back of the site.

The sub-committee approved the licence with a 6am-11pm limit on alcohol sales, and with the above conditions imposed.

The company will also erect a metal railed fence around an area between the station and the road, and around a generator behind the property.

Acting sub-committee chairman councillor Debbie Harvey told objectors: “I do sympathise with your plight. It is not easy.”

And she warned the company: “If this exacerbates anything whatsoever for these residents, you will be brought back before the licensing committee.”