A Rochester shop has had its alcohol licence suspended for two weeks in an effort to combat street drinking and anti-social behaviour.

City Minimart, in Cazeneuve Street, appeared before Medway Council’s licensing committee yesterday following a bid for a licensing review.

The application from police, Medway Public Health and Neighbourhood Watch was put forward following reports of underage sales of alcohol, complaints of street drinking and anti-social behaviour in the area.

The licence will be suspended for 14 days and, once this ends, the store will not be allowed to sell beer, lager or cider stronger than 6.5%, nor single cans or bottles. The store must also have an unobstructed view of the area outside of the shop front.

Piratheepan Kulanayagam, owner of City Minimart in Rochester, is now preparing to challenge the decision - which he said was unfair and would impact heavily on business.

City Minimart's solicitor Gill Sherratt argued in the hearing that the shop had responded to a Trading Standards investigation, obtaining extra personal licences for staff and improving training - and that failures highlighted by that investigation were therefore irrelevant to the review.

She said the police had failed to work alongside Piratheepan Kulanayagam and instead simply tried to "throw the book at him".

"We are not saying there are not problems with drinking and anti-social behaviour but if we are going to restrict a store from selling alcohol, it isn’t appropriate to do so just because it’s desirable to do so," she added.

At the same hearing Euro Foods, based in Chatham High Street, was refused an alcohol licence. The premises had re-applied for the right to sell alcohol following a successful application to have its licence revoked in February 2017.

Owner Stoll Donchev told the hearing he would not sell high strength beer to street drinkers and accused police of failing to tackle the problem, but was denied a licence.

PC Chris Hill, from Kent Police’s Medway Community Safety Unit, said: "Anti-social behaviour caused by drinking to excess in public is an unacceptable nuisance for other people and is something that we will not hesitate to take action on.

"We appreciate that the shops themselves are not to blame for all issues in the area, but their business practices do have a contributory effect and it is their responsibility to protect children from harm and prevent a public nuisance .

"These recent hearings show that, by working closely with Medway Council, we are able to take enforcement action that I am sure will benefit the rest of the community."

More in this week's Medway Messenger.