A convenience store in Radford has been licensed to sell alcohol despite an outright objection from the Police, after more than 150 local residents signed a petition in support of the application.

Chahal Convenience Store, on Larkdale Street, has been granted permission to sell alcohol between the hours of 8am - 8pm from Monday to Saturday and 8am - 6pm on Sundays, following an application handled by Nottingham-based Fraser Brown Solicitors. The decision has been welcomed by those living in the immediate area, who were keen to support a popular local trader.

Walaiti Rathore, licensing solicitor at Fraser Brown, handled the latest application on behalf of the Chahal Convenience Store, after previous solicitors failed in an earlier attempt to secure a licence. He said, "In this case the views of local residents were a vital ingredient in the success of the application and this is something we were able to use to our advantage. In many instances licensing applications can divide a community but here we saw local people coming together to achieve a positive result."

Mr Chahal said he was delighted with the result of his application: "This is the result I was hoping for when I started this process and I am very grateful to everyone involved for making it happen. The local residents especially have been very vocal in their support and it is this which helps small, independent businesses such as mine survive."

Christie Attenborough is one of the residents that supported the application. She added, "The Chahal Convenience Store is a real focal point for the community around here, which is why it is so important to us. A group of us spent time raising awareness of the issue among those living nearby and ten of us went to the hearing to show our support publicly."

The support for the Chahal Convenience Store is in stark contrast to the 1,000-name strong petition circulated against a licensing application by Tesco Express. The store, which has been built on Alfreton Road,  applied for a licence to sell alcohol between 6am and 11pm. Locals fear the licensing hours requested are too long and the store would have an adverse effect on smaller traders in the area.