Councillors have agreed alcohol can be sold at a Marsh store until midnight.

Kirklees Council’s Licensing Panel backed a bid by Tesco Express to remain open and sell alcohol until midnight daily.

They were told that no problems had been reported with its licence in the 10 years it has been open, something disputed by residents.

Councillors Christine Iredale, Tony Brice and Bill Armer heard from Tesco and residents living near to the Westbourne Road store.

Tesco were represented by store manager Mick Walker and a legal officer, who told the three-strong panel that Tesco had 1,709 Express stores nationally and alcohol sales made up 7% of till receipts.

Mr Walker, who has 12 years experience with the retail giant, has been at the Marsh store for six months and was seeking an extension to its premises licence, which ran from 6am until 11pm, to extend it to midnight.

Tesco Express, Westbourne Road

Tesco responded to representations made by an objector, saying litter was picked up by a daily cleaner and staff were trained not to sell alcohol to those drunk, adding: “The shop is a convenience store and allowing this until midnight will mean shift workers can do their whole shop in one go.”

But Sharon Kelly, who lives nearby, said they had reported problems from litter to antisocial behaviour.

She said: “This is in a residential area, there are people with families living around here and extending the likelihood of disturbance from 11pm until midnight will be felt.”

She reported incidents of people buying alcohol from the store and sitting on residents garden walls, litter left behind and rubbish from the store’s yard blowing into residents' gardens.

Her husband, Cormac Kelly, concluded: “There have been problems in the past and there is no reason to believe there won’t be in the future when people are able to buy alcohol until midnight.”

The couple, however, did say staff at the store were receptive to dealing with issues when the arise, and Mr Walker had given them his contact details for future use.

The licensing committee approved the application for alcohol sales until midnight.