CITY centre residents fed up with drunken revellers hope to prevent a theme pub from staying open later.

Regent Inns, owners of the 700-capacity Australian-themed Walkabout pub in North Road, Durham City, will ask magistrates and councillors on Tuesday for permission to extend its hours from 1am to 2am from Monday to Saturday and from 11am to 12.30am on Sundays.

On Sundays preceding a bank holiday, the pub would close at 2am.

The company's drinks and public entertainment licence applications will be considered by JPs and Durham City Council's licensing panel respectively.

Seven objections, including a 31-name petition, have been received from residents living near the venue, which used to be the Robins Cinema, and from the City of Durham Trust.

North Road is home to two nightclubs and several pubs and has become the hub of the city's drinking circuit in recent years.

The venue won its licences only after successfully appealing against refusals - residents and police lodged objections over concerns about early hours disorder, anti-social behaviour and potential strain on police resources.

However, while police are raising no objections to the extension, residents do not want longer opening.

One objector has written to the council saying he has to get up for work at 6am, but is woken up between midnight and 2.30am by students "shouting and screaming" on their way home.

"The proposal of opening till 2am on a Sunday before a bank holiday, and 12.30am on an ordinary Sunday, is not fair to people who, like myself, have to get up for work and would like to perhaps have a proper, undisturbed night's sleep before going to work.''

Another objector, who lives near the bus station, said: "The noise is worse between 11pm and midnight and then peaks again at about 2am. The noise consists of shouting, laughter, screaming, police sirens, car brakes screeching and glass being broken.''

An application to extend the hours for Yates's Wine Lodge, further down in North Road, has attracted five objections. The firm wants to close at 12.30am on Sundays or 1am before a bank holiday