The Met Police has opposed a Kingston shop's plans to sell booze until 1am over fears it will lead to a rise in anti-social behaviour.

Victoria News, at Chessington North station, wants to extend its opening hours and sell booze until 12am on Sundays to Thursdays, and up to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Victoria News is located at Chessington North Station (Credit: Charlotte Lillywhite/LDRS)

The plans received objections from the police, along with Kingston Council's public health and environmental health teams.

The authorities raised concerns the extended hours would allow drunk customers to buy more booze and disturb neighbours, as there is no shop in the area that currently stays open after 11pm.

The council's licensing committee heard their concerns on December 10.

Lawyer Armin Solimani, representing the police, said incidents of anti-social behaviour concerning the shop had been reported, while it had also breached conditions on its licence – including storing CCTV recordings for 21 instead of 31 days and failing to provide training records. 

He said the operator had been "careless" and the police did not trust him to properly manage the risks brought about by extending the shop's opening hours.

Mr Solimani said: "We think the risk of extending the hours… is that firstly people get drunker and drunker as the night goes on, so you're more likely to see criminality, you're more likely to see anti-social behaviour at those times of night.

"You have less passive surveillance because you have less people around the area, it gets quiet, and you also have this problem that, this being the last open place because everywhere stopped selling alcohol at 11pm, it means people are going to congregate here when they want to buy alcohol – in this large empty car park surrounded by residential premises."

Louise Gallagher, the council's public health primary care lead for substance misuse, added: "Public health believes that as Victoria News would be the only off sales licensed premises in the locality selling alcohol after 11pm, this would encourage people who have already consumed alcohol on a night out and whose judgement will be impaired to purchase more alcohol on their way home, causing disorder and public nuisance."

Consultant Noel Samaroo, representing the business, said the operator was not aware of any anti-social behaviour or other problems at the shop.

He said many residents had asked for the shop to open later for their convenience, while the operator had a good relationship with the community and there was no evidence to support the concerns raised.

Mr Samaroo said: "My main concern with this is that every representation seems to be harping on at what could happen… as long as he is running the premises in the correct manner, he does everything that he's supposed to do, there should not be any reason why there should be any difficulties at the premises."

Mr Samaroo told the hearing the shop being allowed to extend its hours would "make a difference between it being a successful business and a business that's just paying the bills". He added the operator had addressed the breaches of the shop's licence identified by the police and that staff would be retrained in the new year.

The shop currently sells booze until 11pm on Mondays to Saturdays, and up to 10.30pm on Sundays.

Kingston Council will publish its decision on the plans in the coming days.