Plans for a 24-hour booze licence at a petrol station in Caversham have been withdrawn after the council raised noise concerns.

Motor Fuel Limited applied for a licence to dramatically increase the opening times of Leander Service Station, on Henley Road, to allow it to open and sell alcohol 24-7.

The petrol station and Costcutter shop can currently open from 6am-10pm, Monday-Saturday, and 7am-10pm on Sundays.

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The application was withdrawn following comments from the council’s environmental health and planning teams, which expressed concerns about the impact of extra noise on neighbours.

Rebecca Moon, senior environmental health officer at RBC, said: “I am concerned that, due to the residential location of the premises, if it were to open 24 hours then a public nuisance is likely to result due to noise from activities on site.

“There are residential properties to both sides of the premises and directly behind the premises.

“Such noises would include car engines, car doors slamming, car radios, noise from people talking, and potentially noise from petrol pumps if the petrol station is also proposed to be open.

“These noises are likely to be very noticeable above the general background noise and may cause people to wake up or stop them from sleeping.”

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Current planning planning permission for the petrol station allows opening hours of 7am – 10pm.

Ms Moon said: “The planning restrictions are in place for a very good reason, largely in order to prevent damage to residential amenity from noise.

“If the premises wished to open longer hours they would need to apply for planning permission and would need to submit a noise assessment demonstrating that the noise impacts of longer opening would not be detrimental.”

The owners made an application in 2019 to extend the hours under their planning permission but it was refused as the planning team decided it failed to demonstrate noise impacts would not be damaging to neighbours.

Planning officer Nathalie Weeks added: “There has been no justification that there would not be any detrimental impact in terms of noise, light pollution and disturbance to the local area.

“Residential properties surround the site and concerns regarding a proposed 24-hour opening have not been mitigated.”

The council’s licensing team had withdrawn its concerns after conditions were agreed with the applicant, but Motor Fuel Limited decided to withdraw the application before the licensing hearing could take place on Tuesday (August 18).