A BAR and restaurant owner and entrepreneur has hit out at the police for undermining council efforts to regenerate Blackburn town centre after they cut his late drinks licence.

Magistrates slashed half an hour off the licence of Cubes owner Scott Moon after undercover police claimed food was not available while the bar remained open up to 2am.

Mr Moon said the law requiring him to have food available while he is open late into the night was outdated.

He said he had owned the bar for three and a half years and never served or even been asked a meal.

He said: "If someone comes asking for food now I'll know it's a copper."

The order came just a day after Mr Moon opened a new restaurant, The Lounge, next door to Cubes.

His comments follow a magistrates' hearing in which JPs said he must stop serving alcohol at 1.30am even though the council has given permission for the bar to remain open until 2am.

Mr Moon said: "There seems to be some conflict between the council and the police. The council has given us a late licence but the police seem to be against it."

He said: "All the other towns around here have late bars.

"Sometimes it's looks like they are going backwards. We are generating a lot of business for Blackburn and getting it on the map, but they don't seem to be getting along with it." Another town centre bar, Moist, was also forced by magistrates to stop serving alcoholic drinks 30 minutes earlier after police complaints.

Six other bars which had been bidding to match the late licence of Cubes and Moist, were unable to have their licence applications heard and will now go before licensing magistrates on March 15.

The Jubilee, Grapes, Malt and Hops, Bentleys Cafe Bar, Sir Charles Napier and Baroque in Blackburn were granted public entertainment licences by the council extending their opening hours up to 2am, but they need magistrates' permission to serve alcohol until closing time.

After the decision by the licensing committee at Blackburn with Darwen Council to extend the pubs' opening time police said they were disappointed but would continue to oppose moves to allow the pubs to serve drinks until they close.

Although police did not oppose the bars staying open later because they said they thought it may help stagger "chucking out" times across the town, they have said they do not want them to continue serving alcohol until 2am.