DOZENS of residents have called for a bar linked to an 80-person brawl to be closed.

People living near the Crystal Lounge in Loughton High Street are hoping that the club will be closed or have its opening hours reduced at a licensing hearing in January.

The hearing was called by Inspector Tom Simons after the fight, which started inside and ended with two men being injured and six arrested.

Connaught Avenue resident Mark Pidgeon, 62, whose home is near the car park used by many of the bar's patrons, said: "The whole area has been denigrated.

"You would think we were in the West End of London and it's an inappropriate area for this type of night life."

Doreen Reeves, 74, of High Beech Road, said the problem was not as bad as when the club was known as the Minx, but she was still woken by people coming from the bar in the early hours of the morning.

“For about 20 minutes to half an hour, people are shouting and hollering in the early hours of the morning when we have just got off to sleep,” she added. “We're hoping it will close earlier, but personally, I don't think it should be there in the first place.”

James Hart, Conservative district councillor for the area, questioned more than 40 residents in surrounding roads and found that all but one wanted the bar to be shut down.

When asked to suggest a reasonable closing time, about half said it should close at midnight, rather than at 2am, which it is currently allowed to open until.

“A lot of people think it's a lousy location for a nightclub,” he said. “When (patrons) all get tipped out of the place, particularly in the summer months, they all loiter around and create a nuisance.”

He said he would present the survey results at the licensing meeting on January 17 at 10am in the council's Epping offices.

The owner of the Crystal Lounge, Amit Kumar Kundwa, said he had not seen the survey and could not comment on it.