Tesco given permission to sell alcohol for 119 hours a week in Felpham

The Tesco Express outlet has received a licence to sell booze between 6am and 11pm daily.

The permission from Arun District Council's licensing committee came despite protests from residents and councillors.

Felpham Parish Council chairman Paul English told the committee last Friday the sales of alcohol from the store should be restricted. "I do believe the hours of 8am until 10pm for selling alcohol are quite sensible and appropriate," he said.

Geoff Farrell, a Felpham resident and parish councillor, said: "It's clear this shop will irrevocably change the character of the immediate area, and not for the better in my opinion."

He said customers would be able to buy alcohol throughout the day and sit and drink it on the benches in the adjoining King George V playing field and its children's play area.

But committee chairman Graham Tyler said the Tesco Express should be able to sell alcohol whenever it was open.

The committee, however, did impose four extra conditions on the store to ensure the sales were managed correctly.

These were to ensure a member of the management team was on duty whenever alcohol could be sold, to require an annual meeting to be held between the store's manager and the local community, to log informal patrols by staff around the store and to join the Shopwatch radio scheme.

This doubles the number of conditions which the store's experienced manager, Ali Ayube, has to meet to stay within the law for alcohol sales.

Fierce opposition greeted Tesco's plans to open the convenience outlet on the site of a former car showroom at the junction of the A259 Felpham Way and Middleton Road.

The company received planning permission last year. The store is due to open in September and will have between 20 and 30 staff.

Craig Baylis, the solicitor for Tesco, said the company was willing to stage patrols around the premises to deter youths from gathering or trying to persuade adults to buy drinks for them.

"We will organise patrols outside the premises to see what is happening at least once a night, possibly more often. If they see something they don't like, they will call the police community support officers or a PC," he said.

But he said the company was unwilling to formally endorse the patrols. A temporary shortage of staff because of sickness could mean a lack of patrols for one night and this would put the store in breach of its licensing conditions.

PC Dave Whitcombe, Sussex Police's licensing officer for the Bognor Regis area, said he was confident the store under Mr Ayube's control would not add to anti-social behaviour.