A business owner has called for New Malden to become a "night-time destination" to rival central London despite residents objecting to plans to let a local café sell booze and open late.

Dakota Langhals said his biggest frustration about living in the capital is the closing times of venues in the area and spoke in support of plans from another business, which he does not work for, to stay open for longer at Kingston Council's licensing meeting on March 13.

601PM on New Malden High Street would stay open and sell booze until 11pm on Sundays to Thursdays, and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays under the plans – along with being allowed to play live music until 10pm.

Mr Langhals told the licensing committee the plans should be approved "because New Malden needs to turn into a night-time destination for residents".  He said: "There's a lot of places on the high street currently that are trying to… open later, have a bit more of an energetic vibe to them, and I think we want our area to be attractive to people who want to live and enjoy the nightlife that Kingston has to offer." 

601PM sells drinks, desserts and deli meals during the day, currently closing at 6pm. The business initially applied to sell booze until from 6am to 2.30am and close at 3am every day but later cut the hours.

Mr Langhals added: "The biggest frustration I have about living in London is that things close so early unless you live in central London. I personally would like to see more options available to enjoy where I live without having to take a 40-minute train ride late at night. 

"I know that you've probably heard from other residents that noise issues are a big concern and, you know, fair enough but also this is a high street location and I think it's reasonable for high street locations to have some diminishing considerations when it comes to noise. I think if you choose to live on a high street, you should expect a certain degree of activity and noise.

"But I'm not here to preempt all of the complaints that one could have about the location so I strongly encourage you to approve this licensing application, and as a local business owner as well I want to see more local businesses thriving because that brings activity to the town which helps my business."

The original application received 13 objections and two letters of support. Locals raised fears they would be disturbed by noise if the venue was allowed to sell booze from 6am to 2.30am, as initially applied for. One objector said: "I fear that this will lead to… much more noise and disturbance during sleeping hours, or when travelling late at night or early in the morning."

Another objector said the hours originally requested for booze sales "will not promote the prevention of public nuisance" and are "well into" when people are sleeping. A third said: "There would be uncontrollable drunken customers creating noise at early hours of the morning awaking neighbouring residents living above the shops next door."

Emily Moon, agent for the application, told the committee the business initially applied for shorter hours but was advised by a councillor to extend them to avoid going through the process again if the bar wanted longer hours in future. She said the business had no intention to operate until 3am and shortened the requested hours after the council raised concerns.

Lib Dem councillor Andrew Sillett asked: "Can you just address what you would do when the weather gets a little warm and you're playing live music and you've got people living next door that need to sleep because they need to get up for work in the morning?" 

Ms Moon said the bar will try to minimise noise by closing the doors and having air conditioning on.

She later added: "We have no intention to cause any noise or inconvenience to the neighbourhood and we too live in the neighbourhood as well so we are very aware of the concerns raised and if the licence were to be approved, we will try our very best to abide to all the rules and regulations from the council." 

Kingston Council is set to publish its decision on the application in the coming days.