A planned £10 million cinema complex could be in trouble if it fails to secure a drinks licence, it has been revealed. Brewer Bass Leisure wants a pub/restaurant as part of the Odeon cinema scheme in Head Street, Colchester.

Bass has applied for a drinks licence, but the police have objected, claiming it could encourage more public order problems.

At a hearing on Monday the matter was adjourned, but licensing magistrates heard that if the licence was rejected, it may cause difficulties for the overall scheme.

A Bass spokesman said: "From speaking with the developer, he is concerned that we get the necessary licences."

He added if the bid was rejected: "There will be effectively funding issues in terms of not getting the necessary number of leases in place."

The bar would be called Edwards, similar to 32 other Bass-run pubs in the country.

The brewers would invest £1.8 million into the project and aim to be open by Christmas 2001.

There would also be an eight-screen cinema complex, and there is permission for another bar/restaurant in addition to Edwards'.

Martin Gosling, director and general manager of the Edwards chain, said 40 staff would be employed at the bar, which could hold a maximum of 690 people, and would have CCTV.

Alan Grundy, a chartered surveyor, said he had been to Colchester at night and said the two main problems were "boy racers" and drinkers leaving pubs with bottles in their hands.

But Mr Grundy, who was previously managing director of a leisure firm, said of other Edwards pubs: "They have been an asset at each location they have been in."

Market research showed that 75 per cent of 200 people interviewed were in favour of the pub/restaurant, the hearing was told.

Graham Melvin, a former chief superintendent and operational commander at New Scotland Yard, said that in general Edwards establishments helped raise standards rather than lower them.

Charles Abban, for Essex Police, said there had been an incident at an Edwards bar in Camden, London, where two door staff had been unregistered.

Julian Skeens, for Bass, said the two staff in question were registered, but elsewhere in London.

The hearing in Harwich was adjourned until May, when the objectors will put their case.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.