A Burnham-on-Crouch pop-up cafe and bar has been granted a licence to sell alcohol in Riverside Park.

Bars 4 Events Ltd has now been granted a new licence for Riverside Cafe Bar by Maldon District Council following a licensing sub-committee meeting last week.

The cafe had already been operating under temporary events notices for three days a week for the last six weeks in Riverside Park.

Council officers said in a meeting last week that anti-social behaviour worries are "based on fear and not evidence".

In a representation made to the authority's Licensing Sub-Committee, a local resident said: "Living adjacent to the park I see and hear what goes on – and whilst I do not want to start a public order complaint – attracting large groups of people to a country park and feeding them alcohol will lead to anti-social behaviour, excessive noise and dangerous conduct.

"Children play in that park - do we really need to encourage drunks? As a woman I would not feel safe walking through a park full of intoxicated people. Then there is the issue of the teenagers who gather there – who is going to police these youths having access to alcohol?"

However, Chris Durham, the applicant and company director and founder of Bars 4 Events, said he "did not want to promote" anti-social behaviour in light of residents' comments, and that he would close before it got dark.

He said in the meeting: "Having read through the representations from the public, it is obviously apparent that they are concerned about late night drink in the park and that sort of thing, as we are.

"We don't want to promote that, which is again why we are happy to reduce that to 9.30pm so that people are long gone and indeed, as the nights draw in, we have no intention of opening after dark as again, within the representations it mentions about lack of lighting and that sort of thing. We haven't put any lighting in as we don't want to be open after dark.

"The idea is it's an afternoon and early evening experience, to experience the beauty of the park and the River Crouch for people to just sit quietly, have a coffee and a bacon sandwich, maybe a glass of wine and a cheese platter and then move on and carry on with the rest of their day or evening as they see fit."

Monitoring Officer Simon Quelch advised Monday's Licensing Sub-Committee that the five objections were based on fears rather than evidence.

He said: "In their Appendix C representations they haven't given any evidence, that you can consider to be evidence, of any public order issues.

"All they've done is put forward fears and those aren't really evidence under the guidance.

"The authority's determinations should be evidence-based and unfortunately the members of the public have not brought forward, in my view as a legal advisor and it's for you to decide that, I don't see anything of an evidence-based representation."

A Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) for the park is also being processed to control the use of alcohol in the area.

The venue itself is a black trailer situated next to the River Crouch, with outdoor seating over an area of 30m by 30m.