A NEW multi-million pound hotel set to open in the city centre has been told it must employ bouncers on the door on race days.

The 118-room Moxy Hotel, set to be built on the former Haymarket Car Park behind the Black Swan pub and next to the Hiscox building, applied for a licence to sell alcohol from 10am to 3am every day of the week.

But licensing bosses at City of York Council heard at a meeting on Thursday that, in response to concerns from residents and the police, the hotel has reduced the hours to 1am.

Michael Golightly, from the council’s environmental protection team, said there were also concerns about racegoers drinking at the hotel.

Speaking at the meeting he said: “There’s always an increased number of people in the city centre on race days and we do have concerns over that. I think it would be prudent to have a condition on there to protect residents with door supervisors.”

Neighbours also raised concerns about noise from the new hotel, which has a small outdoor area with tables and chairs.

Nearby resident Ian Kingham told the committee: “Anything that might destroy peace and quiet is if great concern for us. We are responsible for tidying up the pavement area there and that falls upon us if there’s a lot of rubbish or damage. The reduction of hours to 1am is a step in the right direction.”

But solicitor Christopher Grunert, representing the hotel, said there will only be room for about 15 people in the outdoor area and it will be for smoking only after 11pm, with no music played outside after this time.

He said: “My client has a proven track record of operating hotels and has done so successfully without causing concern about noise.

“We don’t intend to take our neighbours lightly.

“The manager has a lot of experience in York. We appreciate that on race days people start drinking earlier in the day and it’s busy in the evenings.”

The hotel, which is next to the Hungate residential development, will also enforce a dispersal policy which it will work out with police.