Police want a pub to be shut permanently following a series of violent incidents.

The Toby Inn, in Cowley Drive, Woodingdean, has been closed since 2.45am on July 8, when Sussex Police issued a 24-hour closure order after men armed with baseball bats, pick-axes and sledgehammers smashed furniture and attacked customers following a car accident involving a barmaid.

The previous weekend teenagers refused service were joined by a gang and started smashing windows.

Sussex Police will ask Brighton and Hove City Council's licensing committee, which meets tomorrow, to make the Toby the first pub in the city to be permanently shut under the Licensing Act 2003, which came fully into force last November.

The force's submission to the committee, seen by The Argus, says: "Police request that as those in charge of the premises have so clearly failed in their obligations to uphold the licensing objectives under the 2003 Act, particularly crime and disorder and public safety, that the licence for the premises be revoked".

Sussex Police has accused landlady Karen Overton, 44, of not being in control of the premises and not being fully aware of the conditions of her licence.

Mrs Overton said the pub had improved since she took over with husband Chris, 40. She told The Argus: "I was at my last pub just under four years and I have never had trouble with the police in there. We are quite distressed."

Kirk Parmenter of Admiral Taverns, which owns the Toby, said: "We are, and have been for a while, looking for a long-term tenant for the property, suitable to the police and residents."

A Government report published yesterday showed that between February 2005 and June this year three other pubs in Brighton and Hove received closure orders.

However, The Northern Tavern in Ditchling Road, the Standard in West Street and the New Bush in Arundel Road, were all allowed to reopen after their owners accepted tougher conditions on their licences.