A West Kirby restaurant will be able to serve alcohol outside despite passionate protests from some of its neighbours.

Andre's, on Banks Road, currently sells alcohol between 11.30am and midnight, but can only do so indoors.

After yesterday's meeting of Wirral Council's Licensing Panel, the restaurant will now be allowed to sell booze in its two outdoor areas after it gained a licence to sell alcohol for consumption off its premises.

But both the garden terrace and front terrace must be cleared of customers by 9pm.

Two of the restaurant's neighbours and the landlord of the flats above it turned up to today's meeting, protesting about late night noise.

Ruth Trout, who lives in a nearby property on Church Road in West Kirby, said that since May she and her partner Simon Trout had been disturbed by noise from outdoor diners and drinkers until 11pm or 11.30pm.

She added: "I would point out that this area is supposed to be closed at 9pm, but this has not happened throughout the summer.

"Every nice evening people have been sitting out there until [late on]."

Mr Trout made a similar case, saying that most of the problems with noise from Andre's started when the lockdown was eased earlier this year.

He recalled Saturday, May 15, when he rang Andre's at 10.35pm as someone was singing Delilah in one of the outside areas.

Although Mr Trout asked the customer to "pipe down", he claims that within two minutes the restaurant called him to say that if he complained again his number would be passed to the police.

Mr Trout added that noise issues such as this carried on until the end of July.

Helen Gardner, who owns flats above Andre's, was worried about the impact of the noise on her tenants.

One of her tenants was a doctor who has late shifts and had told her he was moving out due to concerns about late night noise.

Andre Tedesco, the owner of the business, was being represented by solicitor Alisha Butler at the meeting. She tried to reassure the panel about the restaurant's plans.

Ms Butler said that Andre's was not like a Wetherspoons, it was not a place where young people gathered to get drunk.

Rather than serving cheap drinks, Ms Butler said Andre's was quite an expensive place which attracted an older crowd as well as families.

On the complaints heard at the meeting, Ms Butler asked whether Mr Tedesco can assure residents that complaints would be dealt with and that they can email or phone him with any issues.

She acknowledged that those residents at the meeting were some of the most affected and assured them that concerns they raised would be listened to.

Providing the outdoor areas are cleared by 9pm, the residents and Ms Gardner were satisfied with this arrangement.

Ultimately the application for the off premises alcohol licence was granted, under the condition that the outdoor areas of the restaurant are closed by 9pm.