Street drinking and litter found near a grocery store could prevent bosses from getting an alcohol licence.

But the owner of Best Foods Centre in New Road, Chatham, claims he's never had problems at his shop and denying a licence would be "unfair."

An application has been made to Medway Council asking for permission to sell alcohol from the store between 8am and midnight seven days a week.

But Kent Police has already argued against the licence due to its location.

It sits in a cumulative impact policy (CIP) area - where issues related to alcohol are a problem - and so the applicants had to make an exceptional effort to show how they will combat issues caused by booze and prevent public nuisance, crime and disorder.

The shop is also in Chatham Central and Brompton ward which has the highest rate of recorded crimes in the Towns and the police and Medway Council’s public health team say this is closely related to alcohol.

PC Andre Smuts, North Kent licensing officer, says the application does not address the known issues which the CIP aims to reduce and on those grounds, he says the licence request should be refused.

He also said the fact the shop would be a typical off-licence, rather than any sort of specialist shop, which adds to his consideration that the application cannot claim to be exceptional.

Medway Council’s own public health team raised similar objections to the application, citing the fact the Chatham Central ward has the highest prevalence of violent crimes in the Towns and anti-social behaviour, both considered connected with alcohol.

Additionally, they raised the issue of litter, and public health staff visited the area to assess the level of littering associated with alcohol and found extensive amounts of beer cans and bottles nearby.

Making a similar argument, local resident Bryan Fowler submitted photographs of litter near the shop and says there are already a number of off-licences in the area contributing to the problem of street drinking.

Mr Fowler adds that as long as off-licences offer cheap alcohol, street drinking, littering, and other alcohol-related problems in this area will persist.

But Sheikh Islam, who submitted the application, told KentOnline he's just trying to give his customers what they want and does not recognise the issues raised.

He said: “People are always coming in and asking for us to sell alcohol, they shop here for other things and want to buy alcohol as well.

“We only want to offer what people are requesting and if we could it would help our business to grow, employ more people, serve the community better.

“We haven’t seen anything like what is described, in the year since we’ve been here there’s been no fights or anything like that.

“This premises previously had an alcohol licence and there are other shops down the street which are also allowed to sell alcohol, it would be unfair if we weren’t.

"I’ve run businesses elsewhere for 22 years selling alcohol and so have experience with selling alcohol responsibly. I’ve never had a problem, I know what I’m doing.”

The licence request will be considered at the Medway Council licencing hearing panel on May 27, where members of the panel will hear from Kent Police, the applicant, the public health team, and other representatives.

They will then decide whether to grant, amend, or refuse the application.