THE owner of Accrington nightclub Afrika's has abandoned her bid to prolong the partying at Christmas and New Year.

Anne Miller says she has withdrawn an application for extensions to its public entertainment licence because there was little prospect of her winning a "David and Goliath" battle with police.

She has also hit out at comments made by Supt Malcolm Rawcliffe in a letter of objection to Hyndburn Council which, she claimed, were "highly insulting."

Her request to extend the Christmas Eve and Boxing Day licence to 3am, and New Year's Eve to 4am, was due to be considered by the licensing sub-committee this week.

But the meeting was cancelled when she withdrew the application. In his letter of objection Supt Rawcliffe said there could be public order problems at the club from drunken revellers thinking they could get a drink after 2am.

He said Afrika's was essentially a drinking establishment and provided little in the way of entertainment other than dancing to disco music on a relatively small scale.

Miss Miller said : "There are numerous late night drinking holes in the Hyndburn area.

"If the public require a late night drink they certainly do not have to pay nightclub prices to get one."

She said the club employed professional DJs and entertainers on a nightly basis and its dance floor pro-rata to the size of the premises was considerably bigger than Lar-de-Dars or Martholme Grange.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.