A licence review of Chicken George in Hitchin has been thrown out by North Herts Council's licensing sub-committee.

The premises licence for the Bancroft restaurant was reviewed after a neighbour complained about litter, noise, "traffic dangers" and the "potential for public disorder".

Points made at the meeting determined that to revoke or alter the licence would not fix parking issues and licencing officers found that the restaurant was doing enough to alleviate litter in the immediate vicinity.

The review applicant, Graeme Pollok, acting on behalf of himself and neighbours, said: "The key points are prevention of public nuisance, which includes litter.

"There's also the issue of when we're trying to get in or out of our driveway, having confrontation with the people that have parked in front of our gates.

"There's a complete lack of parking enforcement, which I completely accept is not down to Chicken George directly, but the causality is Chicken George.

"And also this issue of litter, there's no litter bin, there never has been a litter bin outside the restaurant. These are all issues which I think are directly relevant to my request for review. Despite the fact it seems I'm in a minority, I am representing all of the residents of Ransom Yard - we've been living under these conditions for the last two years."

Licence holder Dan Simpson addressed concerns over parking, stating that Chicken George does "sympathise with people whose driveways are blocked", however added "we aren't traffic wardens, we cannot tell people where to park".

"We had to fight tooth and nail to even get this licence," he said.

"We've done everything that's asked of us, as evidenced by the police and the council never coming out to us.

"The frustrating thing for us is we're being accused of things that are either out of our control in terms of the fact that we've always adhered to our licence."

In a closing statement, Mr Simpson added, on parking: "We will work to do what we can within our power to make that better."

The licensing sub-committee determined that: "The premises licence in its present form could not be evidenced as wholly causing the concerns raised in the representations.

"The Sub-Committee agreed that this was outside the remit and would be advising the licence officer to liaise with Environmental Health Team and Parking Enforcement Team.

"The Sub-Committed felt that the issue of litter was adequately dealt with by the premises licence holder in their representation, and were in agreement to take no action."