Why the Net has the advantage in the ‘Undies world’
- Shopping blogger Emma Iannarilli
Gangland pub is shut for good
Thursday 14th August 2008, 11:45AM BST.
A crime-ridden “gangster” pub that brought terror to a Wolverhampton community has been shut for good in a unprecedented move by city licensing chiefs.
See also: Man badly hurt in pub shooting
The decision to close down the notorious Waggon and Horses in Cannock Road was made because of a threat to public safety. It is the first time a pub in the West Midlands has been permanently shut by a local authority.
The city’s licensing sub-committee yesterday ruled the owners, Wiltshire-based Pubfolio, had shown a “complete inability” to prevent crime and disorder at the venue, which has been the scene of recent shootings and serious anti-social behaviour.
A police dossier documenting the pub’s troubled past includes:
* Gun crime and shootings, including a woman reporting a firearm was held to her head inside.
* Riots, including up to 30 yobs trying to force entry.
* Knives, live ammunition, hard-core drugs and a firearm found outside.
* Cannabis being smoked by customers, dismissed by management as “Jamaican culture”.
Residents who campaigned tirelessly to get the pub closed were today overjoyed by the decision. They gave an impassioned testimony to the committee which told how they were living in fear of the criminal goings-on at the pub. They said it was like “living next to a war zone”.
They claimed gunmen and drug dealers had “taken over” the premises, holding noisy all-night parties and “ghettoising” the community and that successive managers had failed to control their behaviour.
Police also warned someone would be killed unless it was shut down.
Sub-committee chairman Councillor Carl Husted said afterwards there had been only four or five such closures nationally. He said: “It is legislation that can only used be used sparingly in the right circumstances – and these were absolutely the right circumstances.
“Paramount was the threat to public safety, not only to the people who use the pub but also the residents who live nearby and the police who are called to deal with incidents there.”
Pubfolio now has 21 days to appeal but under new laws, if an objection is lodged, the pub will remain closed until the date of the hearing.
Simon Bayliss, regional manager for Pubfolio, said afterwards he was disappointed with the ruling.
Police had applied for a three-month shutdown which they say would have enabled them to exercise more control over the pub’s management and owners.
Tom Gee, chairman of the Spring Valley Residents and Tenants Association, which had lodged a 278-name petition calling for the pub’s permanent closure, said it was a “superb” decision by the committee.
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “We thought a three-month shutdown was no good – the owners would never find a manager strong enough to keep away the criminal element.
“Thankfully the committee saw sense and we will be able to sleep a bit more peacefully in our beds now.”
Sponsored Links
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
This makes for very sobering reading: Are we living in England or some third world gangland? It shows you the sort of people in our community; they could be behind you in the supermarket queue, in front of you at the traffic lights, next to you at the doctors. Be afraid…
Report abuse
it will only go somewhere else
Report abuse
Just read the article on the permanent closing of the wagon and horses.Sorry to say that it hardly suprises me , in my opinion they should have closed it years ago but then you have the problem of the “customers” finding another pub to dwell in.Liked the bit about the cultural aspects of smoking weed in a public place , how funny is that , when nowadays your grandfather would probably be sent down for smoking a rolly inside a train station ! What a shame , if it were not so tragic it would be funny , the country has become almost a joke in other commonwealth countries , constantly ridiculed for being weak and pandering to the despotic european politicians. Still what you reap is ultimately what you sow !!
Get well soon ……JP Williams Brisbane QLD
Report abuse
I feel really sorry or Simon Bayliss the regional manager for Pubfolio, who apparently said afterwards that ‘he was disappointed with the ruling.’
Simon if your company cannot run a pub where ‘normal’ customers cannot go to enjoy a quiet dink etc and residents cannot feel safe in their own homes then to close the pub forever is without doubt the right decision!
Appeal if you must but give much thought to doing this. Does your company really want a reputation of running pubs for gangs, for drug dealing and the displaying of weapons?
Do the correct thing Simon, accept the closure decision and then demolish the pub and sell the land for other use and make the residents very happy people!
Report abuse
I’m just worried where they’re all going to go…
Crime seems to be the only industry that’s thriving in this country.
Report abuse
well said comment 1 i feel like i am in a third world country when i look around me
Report abuse
If the people who go there are so bad, why are they not being banged up?
Report abuse
im sorry but i laughed atthis when i sid it i have been to a few parties at this pub an my fella has dj’d there and im sorry but we are not yobbs and neither was the people that came i have never saw guns or weapons on any one and the police have never been called there why ive been at one point there was bouncers on the doors on a friday and saturday night half of this stuff as defentley been exagerated
Report abuse
I would really like to see the people calling Wolverhampton a “warzone” and “third world country” to actually experience a real warzone and a real third world country and then see if they use the same words when they return. We’re so blind and blasé to health, schools, roads, opportunity, clean water, shelter, democratic rights… has our society become so mollycoddled that when there’s rowdy behaviour involving guns and drugs in a pub we call it a warzone? Get real, people! Go and live in Haiti or Pakistan and then see what it’s like…
Report abuse
I think its the wrong decision to close the pub down all together.. the trouble will still be about and thats a government issue..
All they need to do is run the pub differently, focus it more on the food aspect rather than late night raves with late licenses..
if u think bout it the government have created all this themselves by allowing 24 hour drinking licensing!!
what ever happens, the trouble will always be there so shutting the pub isnt going to change that.. thats more of a political issue!!
again another pub will be shutting.. another vacant space!
Where are people going to go to socialise?!
If your hanging on the streets people complain, if u have house parties people complain.. it seems we are going in a vicious circle!!!
And the way i see it only the people right at the very top are to blame!! If punishments were toughter then maybe it would be a detterant from crime.. but obviously the youth of today know the system to well…
my point ne way – closing the wagon and horses pub will not change a thing!!!!!! It’s a dam shame!
Report abuse
Welcome to Labour’s Great Britain, a wonderful safe and happy place to live. Wolverhampton, was once a good place to live, crime was low, cops on the beat, respect of your fellow men. Unfortunately, with the brining into the area of different cultures where life is cheap this is what the British have got.
Report abuse
I thought it was a smashing place, they had terrific crisps, the scratchings were second to none. They had a terrific green bowls team too, they’ll be sorely missed. Lovely place for a dance on a Saturday night, and a lovely warm christmas party every year, all were welcome. It was a lovely friendly place.
Report abuse
#8 Sarah.
It looks like you would be better off having a few nights out of the pub and learning English properly!
I’ve worked in the place as a contractor for Pubfolio once. That was the first and last time I would ever set foot in the place.
The right decision has been made to close it and give the local residents some peace at last, it’s just a pity they couldn’t have banged up half the clientel at the same time.
Report abuse
Its onli going to move else where.. i think it is pathetic, we all moan that there is no where to go, and when we find somewhere it gets shut down, fair enuff weed was smoked in there, and the ocassional fight, but it is no where near as bad as they say it is.. PATHETIC, i cant belive that they think that this is going to stop it!! it will only get 10 times worse, if they dont expect trouble then why bring in the 24 hour drinking!!
Report abuse
How about a pub run by violent criminals for violent criminals? Surely there must be some derelict building somewhere?They could really enjoy themselves,without bothering normal human beings.No need to adhere to building regulations,should the roof cave in or a wall collapse then whats the loss to humanity? Is this acceptable under the current lunatic left,probably not,however if the European bureaucrats deemed it reasonable ;Mad Max 4 (beyond the Hippodrome) ??
Report abuse
‘fair enuff weed was smoked in there, and the ocassional fight’ Ami, enuff (as you spell it) said!!
People dont want it!!
Report abuse
Spot on antony j. Shutting the pub is the equivalent of lifting the rug and sweeping the problem under it. But that’s a Labour-run country for you. The guys I really feel sorry for are the landlords of the nearby pubs who are about to get a scene from Boyz n the Hood on their doorstep.
Report abuse