COMPLAINTS of drug use, open-air sex and thumping music have put a Tunbridge Wells bar's licence under review.

Residents have told the Courier they are sick of putting up with the Long Bar and its customers who, they claim, defecate in the street, climb on car bonnets and hide drinks in their gardens.

One said it was "like being in Ibiza".

The venue's licence will be reviewed by the borough council's licensing sub-committee next month following the complaints.

Its environmental protection department has recommended the bar should shut at midnight at the weekend and is calling on the owners to tighten control over customers' behaviour.

Earlier this year police told the bar to clean up its act after drug tests showed high traces of cocaine and amphetamines in the toilets.

One of the bar's directors Joe Martin said those issues and others raised by the police "had been dealt with" and there had been changes in the bar's management team.

"We have done a lot but there's not really anything we can say until the hearing is over and done with," said Mr Martin.

Residents in Newton Road said problems had escalated since the premises, formerly Latin bar restaurant Que Pasa and more recently The Cuban, re-opened as the Long Bar where customers were admitted until 3am.

Christopher Lewis said: "On a Friday and Saturday night it's like being in Ibiza.

"It's the bang, bang, bang which is really unbearable. When it used to be live music it wasn't so bad.

"In the morning the road smells like one big toilet."

"We have retired and elderly people living in the road shouldn't have to put up with this kind of behaviour," he added.

Mr Lewis said although classed as a bar, the nightspot was "more like a club" and was popular because it did not charge admission unlike other late-night venues.

Peter Bailey, 75, who moved into his house in the 1960s said he had witnessed young women squatting to urinate in the road and had heard of a couple having sex in full view of residents.

"I think everybody has a human right to be able to get to sleep by a certain time. It is at its worst between 2 and 3am, which is just not on."

"This place is a drain on the local police force," claimed one neighbour in a letter to the borough council.

Another said: "A lady down the road had a man put his penis through her letterbox. She told him not very politely to go away and he did, but it's disgusting."

West Kent Police said it had received 37 calls from residents relating to the premises this year.