Householders are celebrating after councillors opposed a plan to let diners use a floating pontoon at a riverside restaurant.

Orde Levinson, who owns Aqua Vitae at Folly Bridge, Abingdon Road, Oxford, applied for planning permission to allow diners and drinkers to continue using the pontoon moored beside the restaurant.

But city councillors on the council's central, south and west committee rejected the application following complaints from neighbours.

Planning officer Murray Hancock said Mr Levinson did not have permission to use the pontoon as a restaurant and bar.

He said: "Previous applications were refused, no permission exists. We as officers have come to the view that it would not be a good idea to grant unrestricted permission."

Resident Charlotte Stead, who lives in Shirelake Close, opposite the restaurant, said the noise from Aqua Vitae was extremely disruptive. She said: "Groups of 10 or more are drinking late into the evening although there is no approval. Music is blaring across the river. Any move out on the pontoon is one step too far."

John Peachey, also of Shirelake Close, welcomed the council's decision.

He said restaurant lights lit up the river and his house "like an amphitheatre".

He added: "The noise is going on when we are trying to go to bed. Then there is the safety aspect, there is nothing around the pontoon to stop people falling off. There are children running around, it is an accident waiting to happen."

Mr Levinson said: "The noise from the road is far greater than from the restaurant.

"All safety aspects have been checked by the Environment Agency."