NEW opening hours for a neighbourhood pub have been scaled back after objections from residents.

The Jolly Millers, Mayplace Road West, Bexleyheath, faced more than a dozen objectors when its application for a licence under the new licensing laws was heard by Bexley councillors last week.

Licensee Victor Knight had already reduced plans to extend his hours because of opposition.

But the police did not object to the pub's application because the pub posed no policing problems.

Residents in Mayplace Road West and Forresters Crescent, which runs behind the pub, complained about the noise from late-night drinkers leaving the pub and of customers parking on pavements and across driveways in the surrounding streets.

The pub has a garden where barbecues are held and also features karaoke and live music which residents say disturbs their sleep.

They also complained about litter from pubgoers and of drunks urinating in their gardens.

The council also received 14 letters of objection and a petition containing another 12 signatures.

The committee decided to limit the pub to its present opening hours of 10am until 11pm, instead of the 11.30pm which it wanted, between Monday and Thursday.

On Fridays and Saturdays it will be open from 11am until half-past midnight.

On sundays it will open from 11am to 10.30pm except on bank holiday weekends when it will close at midnight.

On Christmas Eve the pub can open from 10am until half-past midnight not the 1am it had asked for and on Christmas Day from 11am until 10.30pm.

Drinking-up time will be extended by 10 minutes.

Live music or karaoke will be limited to two weekdays between 10am and 11pm, on Friday and Saturday from 10am until 11.30pm and on Sunday between 11am and 10pm. There will be conditions on its licence to prevent noise nuisance to neighbours.

The Millers Arms in Bexley Village High Street, was also granted a new licence which will allow it to open until midnight on Sunday to Thursday and half-past midnight at the weekend. It will open for an extra hour on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, the Easter break and bank holidays. Drinking-up time will be 30 minutes.

l Applications to Bexley Council to extend licensing hours, including the last date for objections in brackets, have been received from the Montrose Park Club, Hurst Road, Sidcup, (June 29); Morgans, Lion Road, Bexleyheath, (June 24); Duchess of Kent, Brook Street, Northumberland Heath, (June 24); Belvedere Working Men's Club, Gilbert Road, Belvedere, (June 28); Bexleyheath Working Men's Club, Royal Oak Road, Bexleyheath, (June 28); Sidcup and Footscray United Services Club, Main Road, Sidcup, (June 23); Golden Lion, Broadway, Bexleyheath, (June 13).

Details of all these licence applications can be seen by the public on the council's website at bexley.gov .uk/licensing There is free access to the internet at all Bexley libraries.