A CLUB in Christchurch town centre has been allowed to stay open later after successfully mediating police concerns.

Cameron’s Club and Lounge in Bargates can now serve alcoholic drinks until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays, with 30 minutes of ‘drinking up time’.

Previously, it was only allowed to sell alcohol until 3am, seeing it close at 3.30am on these two days.

A premises licence application, submitted by Esmecam Limited, requested for the permitted hours of licensable activities to be varied.

The application also sought changes to licence conditions, including where the capacity of the premises is restricted to 150 persons, only three SIA door supervisors need to be employed from midnight.

Another request was made to change last entry for revellers on Fridays and Saturdays to 3am.

Dorset Police objected to the proposed extension under the licensing objectives of the prevention of crime and disorder, and public safety.

The force’s drug and alcohol harm reduction team did “not share the confidence of the operator that this would not result in a creep back to the unacceptable levels of incidents and violence that this premises has experienced”.

Addressing the provision of supervisors, Dorset Police said while it had no issues with having three SIA door supervisors for a maximum of 150 customers, it did not support the proposed deployment time of midnight.

Officers also requested that two SIA door supervisors remained on duty from 10.30pm as per the current licence conditions.

No other objections were raised to the condition changes sought by Cameron’s.

At BCP Council’s licensing sub-committee meeting on Wednesday, March 27, members were advised that Dorset Police had since withdrawn its representation.

It followed “successful mediation” with the applicant, and meant the application could be removed from the meeting agenda. On Saturday, Cameron’s confirmed the extended alcohol sales and opening hours for Fridays and Saturdays had been approved.

It will be open until 2.30am on all other days.

Dorset Police also allowed it to remove a condition from the licence which related to COVID regulations.