The owner of an Arbroath bakery has criticised police for giving him “no support” in dealing with alcohol-fuelled problems on Friday and Saturday nights.
Neil Elford, who operates Pie Bobs in Arbroath, claims the police would rather see his business close than address the issue of people getting excessively drunk.
There have been several high-profile court cases relating to the bakery this year for offences including indecent exposure, vandalism and assault.
Mr Elford has called on the police to have a presence at the bakery which operates until 5am after the pubs and clubs close.
He said: “A deputation from Police Scotland prepared a list of 41 incidents over the past year, but 12 of these took place during the daytime and several didn’t relate to us being open.
“If police wrote down every incident outside a pub and club, every time they had to tell people to stop an argument and move on, there would be thousands.
“Yes, there can be problems at Pie Bobs at night-time because of alcohol but we are talking about a very, very small percentage of our customers.
“The problem is really on Friday nights for an hour and a half, Saturday night for two hours. Why can’t police send a patrol to sit at the bakery and follow the crowd up?
“We don’t sell the drink that causes the problems and we try to move people on as quickly as possible. We feel the police are giving us no support.”
Mr Elford claimed that in some instances the shop operating during the night had potentially saved lives, as people who had medical issues had come there to raise the alarm.
He closed the bakery for 10 days due to the stress of obtaining his late licence and said the fact that two Arbroath councillors, Bob Spink and Alex King, voted against the licence was a “kick in the teeth”.
He added: “I work 80 hours a week to keep the business going, only to be kicked in the teeth like this by local councillors.
“We employ 20 people, purchase 80% of our products locally and support charities in the town.
“Yet when it comes to our late licence, we were supported by councillors outwith Arbroath but not two from within the town.”
Arbroath East and Lunan councillor Mr Spink said he voted against the late licence for Pie Bobs due to the “strong case” made by the police.
“We’ve got a duty to look after the public interest, which is one of the licencing objectives,” he added.
“It seems that people are coming out after having a drink and they seem to be gathering in Pie Bobs shop. We are not talking about only one or two incidents here. I think the police perhaps didn’t put a strong enough complaint.
“The shop was granted a six-month instead of a 12-month licence so we can keep a closer focus to see if the conduct at the shop continues or if the owner can have better controls on it.”
He added: “I think it’s totally unreasonable to expect police to put a security watch on a shop in the wee small hours of the morning.”
A police spokesman said: “Any observations that Police Scotland make about any business premises will be passed directly to the appropriate local authority licensing committee.”
An Angus Council spokesman said: “The civic licence committee considered the application on November 14.
“There are various conditions attached to a licence, depending on the type of licence applied for. These will be shown on their licence.”