A late-night bar’s manager has promised a “zero-tolerance” drugs policy and to work with concerned residents while bidding for a later alcohol licence.

Bar Sia, in the Broadway, was taken over by new management after Merton Police arrested four people in March for possessing class A drugs, which led Merton Council to cut its opening hours from 2.30am to 2am as part of stringent changes to its licence.

Its new manager, Samuel Graham, has now applied to the council to rename it The Pod Bar Wimbledon and wants it to serve alcohol until 2.30am again alongside a range of new security measures.

But nearby residents are against the move, saying it will worsen the problem of drug dealers operating outside their houses and of noisy partygoers waking them up as they leave the bars.

Councillor Krystal Miller, who represents Trinity ward in Wimbledon town centre, said: "Reducing Sia's licensing hours to 2am seemed like a very small punishment for having drugs on their premises.

“To think they might be allowed to revert to their old 3am finish so soon is outrageous.

“These people have no respect for the residents who have to suffer the consequences once drinkers leave their club."

Anne Deering of Latimer Road, a management consultant with two children, said the change would undermine agreements mad between residents and the owners of the Watershed bar, who also have a late licence, to combat the problems.

She said: “If you release drunk people into residential areas at 3am it is inevitable they will wake residents up.

“But we have young children in our house and we have seen people dealing drugs outside. We even saw a man attacked outside the swimming pool.”

Toni Gambonini, also in Latimer Road, added: “I don’t think this is a neighbourhood that is interested in having people drunk as a skunk outside out doors at 3am. It’s appalling.

“We have kids fighting outside our homes and we can’t expected to tell them to go away and have a brick thrown through our window.”

Mr Graham, 35, said Bar Sia now had 16 CCTV cameras and the revamped Pod Bar would beef up security by employing extra security staff and a install machine to scan a proof of identity for each of its guests.

The former manager of Pacha, a Victoria-based nightclub, said: “I understand where the residents are coming from and I agree licensees need to take responsibility for their actions and not just turn out drunks in the middle of the night.

“My intention is to create a nice peaceful happy environment for people to enjoy. We work very closely with the police and the council to achieve that.

“Unfortunately drugs are a part of what goes on in society and it needs to be managed. We already have signs on the door and in the toilets that say we operate a zero-tolerance drugs policy.”

Bar Sia’s licensing application is viewable on the council’s website and residents can have their say until Friday, February 10.