A west Watford convenience store’s attempt to regain its licence to sell alcohol has been thrown out.

Councillors at Watford Borough Council blocked the application by DKSR on Whippendell Road to be allowed to sell booze from 8am to 11pm, seven days a week.

The move comes after the store was stripped of its licence last year following police complaints it was serving drunk people, known trouble-makers and underage drinkers.

At a meeting of the borough’s licensing sub committee councillors were told that since DKSR had lost its licence antisocial behaviour and complaints had dramatically dropped.

Before the hearing the applicants, a Selvaranee Srithas and Mounisha Srithas, said they were willing to have conditions added to a new licence including training for staff on licensing laws.

However no one from DKSR turned up to this morning’s hearing to answer questions from three-councillor committee, which was made up of two Liberal Democrats and a Conservative.

Police Sergeant Ian Smith told the committee Hertfordshire Constabulary was against the application due to the drop in complaints they had received in the area since DKSR had originally been barred from selling alcohol.

He said: “There has been quite a dramatic change and the only thing to account for this is the removal of the premises licence.

“We have substantial evidence and we don’t think this is a good application.”

In a report to councillors prior to the meeting Liam Fitzgerald, Watford’s antisocial behaviour co-ordinator, said there had been a "sustained reduction" in antisocial behaviour in the Vicarage Road ward since DKSR stopped selling alcohol.

“Most noticeable is the reduction in complaints surrounding street drinking and or persons apparently heavily intoxicated in the immediate area of DKSR,” he said.

“I have also had, since the revocation, no complaints from the nearby infants school, which previously harassed by street drinkers.”

Conservative councillor Andrew Mortimer responded to the police representations by saying they were the “most negative” he had ever seen them make on an application.

Jan Brown, the Lib Dem chairman of the licensing sub committee, said she felt the shop owners had not learnt their lesson from the previous time they lost their licence.

She said: “They appear to have learnt nothing from their previous experience.

“I would have thought they would be making every effort to comply with the law but they are not.”

After a the representations from the police the three councillors retired to consider the application before rejecting it.

Councillor Brown added that as well as not complying with the council’s licensing policy the committee were unimpressed that no one from DKRS turned up.

She added: “I would like to say that the failure of the applicant or any representative to attend this hearing left the committee unable to question them.”