RESTAURANT and bar owners in The Parade in Watford are meeting with council officers on Wednesday to call for the curfew on al fresco dining to be dropped.

Currently people cannot eat outdoors after 8pm, but owners feel this does not fit with the continental atmosphere the council is trying to achieve.

They are meeting with council officers on Wednesday in an attempt to have the limit - which is set in their licensing agreement - lifted.

Mr Harry Crabb, manager of Bodega in The Parade, said: 'We not not doing this so much for us as for the people who come to Watford for al fresco dining.

'With the long evenings we are sometimes having to interrupt their meal at 8pm and get them to finish inside - especially as people tend to come out quite late anyway.

'The council is trying to create a caf quarter and they are spending a lot of money on the pond but it does not seem right to have a caf quarter where you cannot eat outside after 8pm.