A FAST food drive-thru restaurant under fire for not clearing up rubbish dropped around its premises has had its night cafe licence renewed for just an extra six months.

KFC in High Road, Harrow Weald has also been ordered to define exactly where it needs to target the problem areas which has infuriated residents and the council for the past three years.

Ward councillor Mary Graham, had objected to the licence being renewed after receiving frequent complaints from householders in nearby Boxtree Road about the litter and being woken by noise from the restaurant at the weekend, when it is open until 2am.

The restaurant had wanted to extend the licence by one year.

"KFC litter is now a habitual problem but late night and early morning users seem to be even more careless of how they dispose of it," she said.

Terence Harby of Twickenham Gardens, Harrow Weald said since KFC opened his area has become the 'dustbin of the borough'.

"You only have to walk along the High Street and adjacent roads to see the litter and chicken bones on the pavement, gutter and hedges," Mr Harby said in a letter to the council. Another resident from Boxtree Road described how customers throw rubbish out of their car windows after eating.

The council's environmental health department also lost patience with the franchise holder, Demipower, which claimed litter patrols were being operated and monitored.

Officers who visited the restaurant's staff were told no such patrols were being operated for a period of eight months. In a letter to Demipower, they warned the frachisees: "It appears that your organisation is not only in breach of KFC franchise requirement to provide a litter patrol, but also not in keeping with commitments by your senior management to the division."Either (your) Head Office has no idea of what was happening on the ground or it was simply factually incorrect."

Operation Manager for Demipower, Ian Morley, said: "We do not accept that all the litter is a KFC problem. My staff, when carrying out patrols at no costs to tax payers, come across other litter including bottles, cans and other items." It is not fair to lay all the blame at our door."

By.Rachel Clarke