A Bridport bar will be allowed to stay open until the early hours over the coming bank holiday weekend – after overcoming a police objection.

Neon ran into opposition from the force because of an incident in July which resulted in a customer being seriously assaulted in the street.

Police said that because the argument started in the East Street bar there was a risk of something similar happening again.

But landlord Mike Long told Dorset councillors deciding the application for a 4am temporary licence over the long weekend that he and his staff had done all they could – including walking the customer to the taxi rank.

He told the hearing that had the incident not started in Neon it would have started somewhere else because of an alleged long-standing argument between the people involved.

Police admitted that the bar had no record of incidents in the past which had caused concern and Mr Long said that he and other staff always went beyond what was required to try and keep the town trouble free and people safe.

Neon has now been granted the licence for 10pm to 4am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday 27-29 August and for a minute past midnight on Monday 30 until 4am. It covers the sale of alcohol and regulated entertainment at the late-night bar and grill which was previously known as Sins.

Said Mr Long: "We are really pleased that the committee has agreed with our appeal and overruled the police objection to our application for extended hours over the bank holiday weekend. We would like to thank them all for their time on Monday in hearing our case. We would also like to thank Dorset Police for their continued hard work during testing times."

The bar has music from K2 on Friday night from 10pm and on Saturday has resident entertainer Nic Sol joined by Cass the bongo man from 10pm.