A cocktail bar and restaurant has been given the green light to extend its opening hours.

AVA’S in Southampton wanted to sell alcohol and play music until midnight.

Two residents submitted objections to the licence variation over noise concerns, but no issues had been raised by police and environmental health officers.

Licensing consultant Nick Semper, representing the applicant, said AVA’S was a “successful and established” business in the heart of Oxford Street.

He described the variation as “modest”, adding that other premises in the area operated later into the early hours.

Mr Semper said: “The rationale for this extension of operating hours is that our market research shows us that with the recent rise in the cost of living our customers are entering the night-time economy later and this is matched by a reduction in our footfall and revenue up to midnight.

“The venue starts to get a healthy volume of customers around 9pm and therefore staying open later will allow them to recoup on lost revenue and make this more sustainable, which is clearly a good thing.”

The sub-committee was told that the venue had a sound limiter in place and a Security Industry Authority door supervisor would assist with the dispersal of customers for 15 minutes after closing.

In a written submission, one of the objectors said they had gone into the premises to complain about the noise.

This was disputed by the applicant, who said they had never received any complaints.

Members of the city council’s licensing sub-committee approved the variation following the meeting on March 21.

A published statement on this decision said: “Whilst the sub-committee noted the concerns of the residents, it was satisfied that there had been no complaints regarding the operation of the business to either licensing or the responsible authorities during the period of the business commencing operation and the application for a variation of the licence.”