A THREE-year-old girl was abandoned by her drunken mum in a Hampshire pub.

The woman walked out of the bar after a row with her partner who was arrested by police and taken away, leaving the little girl being looked after by strangers.

Police have accused bar staff of failing to protect the child by continuing to serve the mother and her partner, even though the couple were clearly drunk and “becoming a problem”.

It happened at The Glen, Hythe, and could lead to the popular watering hole losing its licence.

In a report to licensing chiefs, police say the pair had been drinking for more than five hours before staff decided to stop serving them.

The man had a furious row with a staff member before picking up the young child and walking towards the exit.

One of two women sitting nearby followed him outside and asked him to put the little girl down.

The report says he did so but became involved in an argument with the child’s mother.

It adds: “Following the argument the mother walks off and goes home while the male partner is arrested for a number of alleged offences.

“This meant the three-year-old girl was left in the care of strangers.

“The child’s parents are responsible for her but staff have an obligation to promote the licensing objectives, in this case the protection of children from harm.

“The police are of the opinion that more should have been done to protect the child.”

The pub has a policy of no children in the bar after 9pm yet the parents were allowed to stay in the bar until 10.30pm when they had clearly consumed too much alcohol, the report concludes.

Following the incident the mother received a caution for being drunk in charge of a child.

The report says the police had already received complaints about the pub serving under-age customers and decided to investigate.

During a test purchase operation alcohol was served to two people aged 15 and 17.

The future of The Glen, formerly Gleneagles, will be discussed at a meeting of New Forest District Council’s licensing sub-committee next Thursday.

Councillors will be presented with a range of options including suspending or revoking the pub’s licence.

No one from The Glen was available to speak to the Daily Echo.

However the report says pub bosses have already agreed to carry out a raft of improvements, including better CCTV, enhanced staff training and the introduction of a floorwalker to monitor customers.

Minutes of a meeting attended by Hannah Stone and Craig Bannister, who run the pub, say all staff would receive a staff handbook, job description and an updated contract following the incident involving the child.

Staff shortages and a “momentary lapse of judgement” were blamed for the decision to sell alcohol to the two teenagers.