SOUTHAMPTON’S top cop is leading a bid to stop two of the city’s notorious nightspots reopening as a 1,400 capacity superclub.

Nexum Leisure wants to spend £1.6m to transform the former McClusky’s and New York New York venues in Queens Way into a new club called Escapade with a 24-hour licence.

But chief superintendent Matthew Greening has lodged a “firm objection”

to the scheme fearing it would become a magnet for crime and disorder and an extra drain on already stretched police resources.

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The taxpayer already foots an annual bill of up to £2m to police the thousands of revellers in the city every weekend, the Daily Echo has discovered.

Mr Greening will personally urge councillors to withold a licence.

Police have submitted a 100 page dossier, including crime logs and details of underage drinking in the 18 months before the venues closed in June 2004.

They blamed “poor and ineffective management” and point out the same firm is behind the new proposals.

Police say the only change is an assurance the club won’t run drinks promotions offering unlimited booze for set price.

More than 150 separate objections have also come from nearby residents and traders campaigning for the council to withhold a licence.

Nexum chief executive Paul Kinsey said he had spent five years and £1m trying to redevelop the site for homes to be thwarted by planning rule changes, council dithering and the downturn. He said he couldn’t keep paying rates and rent for an empty building.

Mr Kinsey claimed the new venue would be “completely different” and a “better quality club than anything in the town”.

He said it would target serious 19 to 24-year-old clubbers not “undesirable characters”.

Mr Kinsey said his proposal was to serve alcohol until 4am and close at 5am. The licence application also seeks permission for topless dancing on selected nights.

Charlotte Egan, from Briton Street Residents’ Association, who lives just yards away in Oceana Boulevard, said residents feared violence and vandalism from revellers spilling out from the club.

“We are overwhelmed at the response that we have got against this application. It is a clear sign that the community take possible crime and disorder seriously, and that we will not go away without a fight,”

she said.

Councillors will consider the licensing application on Thursday.

They turned down a bid to renew it in 2005 due to a lack of a plan to address crime fears. Planning permission is already in place.