A CONVENIENCE store will be allowed to sell alcohol until late in the evening despite a neighbour’s claims of noise disruption and drug dealing.

Kenneth Hogan, who lives next door to Niha’s Mini Mart, in Blackrod - also known as J & S Convenience Store - claimed to have seen youths passing bags of drugs to each other outside.

Mr Hogan, who has lived at the property in New Street since 1995, also said the noise of cars pulling up to the store has been it difficult to get to sleep in his bedroom at the front of the house.

However, Sarah Clover, legal representative of shop owner Sheeta Patel, explained to Bolton Council’s licensing sub-committee that the police had raised no concerns about anti-social behaviour issues after an application was made to extend the hours.

She said: “They’ve had a licence for some time now, certainly enough time for the responsible authorities to be able to note the performance of the premises and the licensee.”

In 2015, licensing bosses approved an application to allow the shop to sell alcohol from 6am until 8pm, although other trading could take place until the store shut at 10pm.

Ms Clover explained that this was leading Niha’s to lose custom.

“People expect to be able to go to the shop of their choice and pick everything they that they want without going to another place,” she said. “If they can’t do it here they will go somewhere else for everything, their milk and their bread and everything.”

In response, Mr Hogan explained his complaints, recalling an incident earlier in the year when he claimed to have seen a young male passing a bag of cannabis to another person through a car window just outside the shop.

He also said noise from cars outside the shop had caused him to lose sleep and that extending the sale hours for alcohol would make this problem worse.

He said: “It’s not fair on me when I can’t use my front bedroom to sleep. I live in the backroom now because of the noise.”

Four other residents in the local area wrote to the council in support of the application including the neighbour on the opposite side to Mr Hogan.