ONE of York’s biggest nightclubs is to be allowed to stay open later after its bosses gave guarantees that it is to continue operating.

The Gallery in Clifford Street will now be able to serve alcohol to revellers for an hour longer and remain open for an extra 30 minutes, seven days a week.

The club’s owners succeeded in their application for extended opening times to City of York Council licensing chiefs despite residents opposing the move, saying it would increase night-time noise and disturbance in the area around the venue.

The decision means alcohol will now be served until 4am in all areas of The Gallery, with the club closing half an hour later.

Currently, the cut-off times for buying drinks are 3am in the main dance floor and basement sections and 3.30am in the club’s VIP lounge.

The Press revealed on Saturday how The Gallery’s acting manager, Chris Bateman, had quashed rumours the club was set to close to allow the neighbouring York Dungeon to expand onto the site it currently occupies. It followed the revelation that Luminar, which owns the club, made a £123 million loss in the year ended February 25. But Mr Bateman said: “We are here to stay.”

Approving the application, the council said the extended hours were dependent on full CCTV coverage of all areas of the club and an “adequate” number of door staff being maintained, and also ruled that customers should not be able to enter The Gallery after 3am.

It has also insisted that no more than 775 people should be allowed inside the club at any one time, and a plan to minimise noise should be agreed with the council’s environmental protection unit.

Objections to the application came from, among others, Jacquie Sleven, assistant manager at the nearby Quaker Meeting House in Friargate, who said the noise already coming from the club was “an appalling disturbance”.