ANGRY neighbours to a town centre pub are ‘up in arms’ over the possibility that late-night revellers could soon be emptying on to the streets of Marlow as late as 4.30am.

The landlord of the Cross Keys pub on Spittal Street wants to extend weekend licensing hours - a move which long-suffering neighbours call ‘anti-social’.

Residents along Liston Road and Chapel Street say they already experience shouting, fighting, customers urinating against their properties and bottles thrown into gardens.

Although unable to single out Cross Keys customers as the only culprits, neighbours say later opening hours will attract drunken revellers from further afield looking for the last available venue serving booze.

Michael Kellas, who has run and lived above the busy pub for five years, says the measure is to help neighbours as it will allow for staggered exit times and not a ‘mass exodus’ of revellers after 2am as is currently the case.

But Ian Pike, secretary of Braemar Residents Association which represents nearby Braemar Court on Liston Road, says current noise levels will become unbearable if allowed to continue into the early hours.

He said: "We think it is incredible they are even considering it. The noise level and loud music will mean no sleep for people in the 14 flats behind the pub, and I would imagine there are more over the road that will be affected.

"Of course people are concerned, they’re up in arms. It is a problem already, but not beyond about one o’clock, and this will now be going on until after four.

"The other problem is the type of people it will attract through the night at that time.

"We have a lot of noise during the summer when the windows are open. We get vandalism too - we can’t be sure if it is the pub but we get it when the pub is busy.

"It is going to hurt people living in the flats who will lose sleep. I accept people are going to make noise, but surely there is a limit, beyond that it is just anti-social."

Mr Pike added that if Shanly Group get the go ahead to build flats opposite the pub at Windsor House, the extension would blight the lives of new residents.

But Mr Kellas insists he has ‘always cared about the future of Marlow’ and hopes the extension will actually help relieve the bottleneck of drinkers currently leaving at the earlier closing time.

He says the licence changes - which he wants to trial for six months - are to help neighbours, not add to their problems, and that the measures will actually cost him money to implement.

He said the music would be turned down at least 30 minutes before closing and would be of a ‘chilled selection’ to encourage customers to ‘wind down’.

And the landlord claims he loves Marlow and wants to provide for the 90 per cent of his clientele who live in the town and want somewhere to enjoy going out near their homes.

He said: "Myself, my wife and out two children moved to Marlow nearly five years ago. We have always cared about the future of Marlow, local residents and our clientele.

"Over the last three months we have incurred an extremely hot summer which has led to possible noise pollution from customers leaving at 2.30am and loitering around outside even though we have six door staff telling people to be quiet and move on.

"Our sole reason for asking for a later licence is to tackle this issue which I am obligated to do as part of my licensing conditions.

"The main contributing factor is when we close at 2.30am. We are still very busy at this time which leads to a mass exodus of people who in very good spirits will cause noise.

"By having a more flexible licence customers can leave at different times, this will in itself cut down noise pollution and enable our door staff to tell the customers leaving to respect our neighbours.

"I believe it will target certain people causing a disruption which can then lead to them being barred."

The Cross Keys currently closes its bar at 2.30am, with all customers asked to leave half an hour later.

The extension would see the bar shut at 3.30am, with music turned off at 4am. The cut off for entry to the bar will remain at 2am.

Wycombe District Council has confirmed the application will be heard publicly in front of the licensing committee on October 8 at 10am.