An Esso-branded Rontec filling station on Yeadon Way, Blackpool, has been granted permission to open its shop 24 hours a day, despite police raising concerns about anti-social behaviour in the area.
The forecourt previously served customers through a night-pay hatch between midnight and 6am, and its operators had applied to Blackpool Council to fully open the shop during these hours.
This prompted officers from Blackpool Police’s licencing department to warn that it had concerns that the forecourt sits in “an area with a lot of car meet ups, causing anti-social behaviour”, while local residents spoke of cars “doing doughnuts” and “racing up and down the main road.”
The council has sided with the filling-station firm and granted permission for the shop to open throughout the night, after declaring it a “responsible operator” that would “risk assess the opening of the retail area”.
Representatives from the firm had “acknowledged that there was anti-social behaviour in the area” according to the council, but the authority explained “there was no evidence that this had anything to do with the shop door being opened.”
The council highlighted that the operator agreed it would only open the shop overnight when at least two staff members were on duty, and that “the door would be closed and all sales would take place via the night serving hatch” whenever this “was deemed necessary”, according to the Blackpool Gazette.
