PLANS to expand Hampshire’s first micropub have split a city community.

The Butcher’s Hook opened in Bitterne Park, Southampton earlier this year, with the tiny watering hole offering a host of real ales and craft beers.

But plans for a new outside drinking area have divided the community around the popular pub.

Many support the move, but others say it will add to the noise issues they have endured since it opened in February.

The managers of the tiny pub, which measures just 12 feet by 27 feet, say the extension would include a small outdoor seating area in front of the property in Bitterne Park Triangle.

In their application to the city council, co-owner Anthony Nicholls said they were asked by the council to have a no drinks policy after opening due to the large amounts of customers outside.

But, he says: “Our customer levels have since died down significantly to the point where we believe outside drinking can take place safely and without jeopardising our licensing objectives.”

He says customers drinking outside would be asked to go back indoors at 10.45pm.

Co-owner Daniel Johnson told the Daily Echo: “The business is doing very well, we are full on Fridays and Saturdays when we have door staff.

“We are still very busy, it’s just that we’re not quite as crazy as it was when we first opened and it was unmanageable outside.”

Eleven people living near to the pub have written in support of their application.

One of them, Dr Tim Chown, said: “The addition of external seating would allow this excellent alehouse to offer patrons the chance to enjoy sitting outdoors when the weather permits.”

Another, Ian Turner, says the new area would “really add to the Bitterne Park Triangle area”, while Vicki Holland said permitting it would “encourage this fledgling business to develop and evolve”.

But four others have written to the council to object to the proposals, with Gordon Gray-Drummond saying the pub “already causes a nuisance as it is with the hordes of drunken people outside.

“If they put seating there, that will reduce the space for passers-by on the pavement”.

Others say the new area could lead to increased noise disturbance for people living near to the pub, while Santa Jancenoka, from the nearby Bitterne Balti, says current noise levels have already driven some of his customers away before they have finished their meals.

The city council’s licensing and gambling sub-committee is now set to decide on the proposals at a meeting at the Civic Centre at 9am on Thursday.