A popular Indian restaurant was left empty on one of the busiest nights of the year due to a 10-hour, anti-police protest.

Staff at Shamrat Indian Restaurant in Lower Stone Street have been left out of pocket after the building became the centre of a "no go" zone set up by police last night (Saturday).

Emergency services cordoned off a 200 yard section of road between the turning for Romney Place and the junction of Knightrider Street at 5pm after a man began climbing scaffolding surrounding Miller Heights.

The man climbed to the top of the tower block, previously known as Miller House, and could be heard shouting at police officers below.

He gradually made his way up and stopped on the 10th floor of the 11-storey building, where he remained for several hours.

At the height of the drama the KM was contacted by a man claiming to be related to the protester.

He said he had climbed the tower block to highlight a long-standing grievance against the police.

Shamrat opened at 5.30pm but the police cordon, which ended just before Vesuvius Italian Restaurant, stopped any customers from entering.

Speaking to the KM a member of staff said: "Not one single table managed to get in. We had a fully booked night and it's one of the busiest nights of the year. We had delivery drivers in too but they couldn't do anything.

"The customers were really understanding people were just saying they were gutted they couldn't get in for their meal. We even had a family coming from Southampton to eat, but they had to go elsewhere.

"We just couldn't do anything, other restaurants had back entrances they could run deliveries from but we don't. It's just unfortunate we were stuck right in the centre, and very frustrating."

Shamrat had a total of 15 serving staff and five drivers working last night, but not one customer was able to enter.

A pub’s opening night was also ruined when not a single customer was able to get through the police cordon.

New landlady of the Fishermans Arms in Lower Stone Street, Valerie Gillingham was not only left sitting in an empty pub for hours but was then not allowed out at the end of the night to go home.

The 46-year-old said: “The night was absolutely ruined. We were expecting about 60 people, including CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) members, my partner’s friends from Linton Park Cricket Club and old customers from the British Queen in Square Hill, which I used to run. But the only people here were myself and my partner.

“At midnight we just told the police we were going home, we weren’t going to stay in there all night, and we left. Everybody knows we’re open now so I don’t see any point in organising another opening night.”

The incident, which lasted for approximately 10 hours, caused traffic chaos in the town and many drivers said it took them an hour to drive one mile.

At around 3.20am, the 49-year-old man came down from the roof and was arrested by police on suspicion of causing a public nuisance.

He remained in custody yesterday (Sunday).

If your business was hit by last night's protest or you had to move an event or cancel it please call our newsroom on 01622 695666 or email messengernews@thekmgroup.co.uk