COUNCILLORS on the county’s licensing sub-committee are to decide next week if a Ross-on-Wye petrol station can serve alcohol and hot food and drinks untill midnight.

Currently the petrol station in Station Street, which was licensed a year ago, is subject to a number of conditions, has been held up after a sharp exchange between the operator’s agents and council officials.

The petrol station is now managed by Motor Fuel Limited, which applied to Herefordshire Council to take over the licence of the station, operating as part of the neighbouring Morrison’s supermarket.

Herefordshire Council asked the company to agree to a standard set of operating conditions under the licence, which it described as ‘a reasonable requirement and not onerous’.

These cover staff training in ‘responsible alcohol retailing’, adopting a policy to prevent sale of alcohol to under-18s, and keeping records of both of these.

But the operator’s agents, law firm Winckworth Sherwood, said the local authority ‘should not be imposing the same model conditions to all premises even those that are operating similar styles of business.

The law firm stated it has been instructed to keep conditions as consistent as possible across the estate, and it told the council’s trading standards officer that the authority does not impose conditions on licences.

Herefordshire County’s licensing sub-committee, will make its decision on Monday, May 13.