Wolverhampton live music venue applies to extend opening hours past 5am
A city centre club has asked for permission to extend its opening hours until 5.30am.
De Fusion Bar and Restaurant in Exchange Street, Wolverhampton, has applied to play live and recorded music until 5.30am and sell alcohol until 5.15am every day.
The bar and restaurant in Exchange Street, Wolverhampton, had its licence suspended last year after it was caught selling alcohol after hours. It currently opens until 3am every day.
City of Wolverhampton Council suspended the licence of De Fusion Bar and Restaurant for two weeks last April after the venue had been found to have breached several conditions of its licence – including serving alcohol after hours.
Bar owner Ikenna Orajaka told the hearing the venue had been struggling to attract customers for months and could not afford to hire door staff.
The venue’s closing time remained at 3am – with drinks allowed to be served until 2.30am – after Mr Orajaka pleaded for the committee to reconsider moving the club’s closing time to 1am, saying the restriction would put him out of business.
The licensing hearing in April last year heard how officers had inspected the venue ahead of Wolverhampton Wanderers home game against Arsenal in January to find the venue had not used door staff ahead of the 3pm kick-off and was serving pints in glass rather than plastic glasses – breaching both strict conditions of the licence.
Staff had not been trained properly, there were no incident logs and “insufficient” records on maintenance checks and fire risk assessments, and the venue did not have drug safety notices nor could it provide CCTV within 24 hours.
Mr Orajaka told the hearing the venue would usually remain empty on Saturday afternoons but he would on occasion open the bar for just a single family.
Mr Orajaka told the hearing: “Am I inexperienced? Yes. Have I made mistakes? Of course. Am I irresponsible? I am not.”
The bar owner’s presentation “impressed” the committee, according to licensing chair, Cllr Zee Russell who had earlier said the venue was one of the “worst cases” she had heard, with Mr Orajaka telling councillors he had gone to great lengths to rectify the concerns raised during the inspection.
Nevertheless the committee ruled the breaches were of a “serious nature” to warrant a two-week suspension.
West Midlands Police had supported the licence review saying the results of the inspection had shown a “clear disregard” for the licence.
The force said it was also investigating two separate incidents at De Fusion which added “further concern of the management of the premises.”
Those concerns were presented during a private session of the hearing on April 30 due to the ongoing police investigation.
