Licensing issues
How can you protect your venue from having its licence removed?
There has been some high profile cases over the last few years such as Fabric, Niche & Rainbow Venues where licences have been suspended and in some cases lost altogether.
At NDML we have worked closely with the NTIA (Night Time Industries Association) to develop an insurance product which provides legal advice and support to establishments when they need it most, so if the police knock on the door at 1am asking to close the venue down because of reports of anti-social or violent behaviour, what do you do? You call the 24/7 crisis support line who will deal with the police on your behalf. For none crisis support such as receiving a notification accusing your business of a breach of a law or regulation that governs your industry for example
- Your local authority may have received a noise complaint against you
- The police may say that you’ve been serving underage drinkers
- There may have been reports that drugs have been sold on your premises
Then the NDML/NTIA product covers this as well.
Get in touch now for more information on the NDML Business Protection product, your business and read the full story here
Niche
Niche night club in Sheffield is set to reopen but the owners have been told they must improve their security measures.
Niche lost their licence after 5 men were injured – 4 of whom suffered serious stab wounds – in a disturbance outside the club on 23th December in what police called a “gang related attack”. Two men, aged 19 and 28, were subsequently charged with violent disorder in connection with the disturbance.
Following the violence, South Yorkshire Police was granted an order shut the club until 6th February.
South Yorkshire Police had called for a revocation order of the club’s licence however that was rejected by a Sheffield Council Licensing committee on the 8th February.
The club must now increase the number of door staff from 4 to 6 and must limit the sale of glass inside the club to the VIP area only. Niche will have until February 24 to present how they will do this.
Bijou Bingley – Headline – “licence revoked after man’s death”
A Bingley nightclub where a man was found with head injuries, and later died in hospital, has had its licence revoked.
24 year old James Etherington died after he was attacked outside Bijou in Bingley on 25 November 2017.
The club’s licence was temporarily suspended in December 2017 following threats to damage the building in the wake of Mr Etherington’s death.
Bradford District Licensing Panel had considered options for it to be re-opened but a decision was made to keep it closed.
The panel said conditions around the club’s re-opening as requested by police did not “sufficiently address concerns about previous licence breaches”.
Members of the panel said the continuation of the licence would “undermine all four licensing objectives”, including public safety and the prevention of crime and disorder.
Rainbow venues – headline – “Rainbow Venues to close for good after having licence REVOKED”
A popular Birmingham nightclub on Lower Trinity Street, Digbeth will close for good after having its licence revoked following a teenager’s drug-related death, which was the second drug-related death in two years at the nightspot.
Licensing sub-committee bosses at Birmingham City Council said they were left with no alternative but to revoke the licence of Rainbow Venues at an expedited review hearing in November 2017.
PC Abdool Rohomon, representing West Midlands Police, said: “We have no option but to call for Rainbow’s license to be revoked. This is the second drug related death at the venue in two years and we have evidence that a 15-year-old boy has been admitted to the venue.
“There are around 3,000 licensed premises in Birmingham and this is the only venue which has suffered drug related deaths. The most stringent measures are in place yet drugs are still being consumed inside the venue.”
In December 2017 the club lodged an appeal with magistrates against the decision, however the decision was upheld.
Consequently, in January 2018, Rainbow Venues announced it will close all of its clubs. It will mean Rainbow Warehouse, newly opened Crane, Rainbow Arena, Car Park and Roof Garden will all shut down.
Venues owner Lee McDonnald said: “On November 28 the Rainbow Warehouse lost its music licence. That has actually spelt the end of the Rainbow Venues in its entirety . Absolutely everything has gone. Unfortunately, Crane has gone, Rainbow Arena, The Car Park, Warehouse, Roof Garden, Blackbox”.
The closures will mean that millions could be lost from Birmingham’s ecomony.
Rainbow Venues has handed over its licence of Spotlight, Mama Roux and Cafe Collette to Digbeth Dining Club , which has announced it is expanding to three days a week.
Attribution: Photo by Christian Jones / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0