A FAST food chain has been granted a licence to stay open for 24 hours at its Colindale branch, prompting fears by police of a surge in antisocial crime.

Officers believe the all-day permission given yesterday for the McDonalds drive-through restaurant, in Colindeep Lane, will attract large groups of youths to the area late at night.

In what has been branded the “moth effect”, licensing officers claim people connected to crimes such as drug dealing and handling stolen goods, are often attracted to bright, late night venues, as an easy meeting point to carry out deals.

Sergeant Mark Altman, licensing officer for Barnet police, objected to the application to extend opening hours of the restaurant until 5am, on the grounds it would undermine their work to prevent crime and disorder, as well as place an “additional and unreasonable” burden on the force.

He said his experience of other sites across the borough with similar licences is that youths will gravitate to the area, and there remains a “strong likelihood” the premises would be used by the “criminal fraternity”.

Concerns were also raised about how close the restaurant is to one of the busiest roads in the borough and how much of the area is residential, which could lead to many people being disturbed during the night because of increased noise.

Sgt Altman said the latest the venue should stay open is 2am, and emphasised it was not the police's responsibility to patrol late night venues. He said he did not believe the security had been adequately addressed and proposed a list of conditions which needed to be considered if the licence was approved.

The Safer Neighbourhood Team said there had been several incidents of anti-social behaviour in the area was a drain on police resources over the past two years. Officers added the 24 hour licence would lead to the site becoming a focal point for youths.

Representatives of the applicant said there are never any less than six members of staff on site at any one time, and of around 750,000 customers the restaurant has served in the past nine months, there have only been a handful of incidents reported to police.

They promised to install extra CCTV and automatic number plate recognition systems to deter people from loitering late into the night.

The lawyer said: “No-one related to drugs or crime is going to want to get their car registration taken.”

Chairwoman of the Barnet Council licensing sub-committee, Labour Councillor Claire Farrier, said the committee agreed to grant the licence but said the hours would not come into force until barriers were installed at one of the entrances and security guards hired.

She said the extra security measures were to prevent people, other than customers, from gathering at the venue.