Call for Wolverhampton nightspot to be stripped of its licence

Balvinder Meetca, leader of Wolverhampton Council’s licensing section, has asked councillors to revoke the licence of North Street Social in North Street, Wolverhampton, citing a serious of incidents at the venue.

The application will be considered at a meeting of the council’s licensing sub-committee on August 5.

In her evidence to the panel, Mrs Meetca cites an incident where a customer was punched in the face after calling another customer a ‘paedophile’.

She said the bar had failed in its obligations to record incidents at the time they happened, that security staff were not wearing the appropriate clothing and body-worn cameras, and that CCTV had not been maintained.

“Many incidents occurred at a time when CCTV was not operational,” said Mrs Meetca.

The hearing will be told that licensee Johnny Jones had previously operated the premises under the name ‘Blossoms’, but his licence was revoked in November 2020 for breaching Covid regulations. Mr Jones appealed to Dudley Magistrates Court, and an agreement was struck where the licence could be retained subject to a number of conditions, including his removal as designated premises supervisor.

In a letter to Mr Jones, Mrs Meetca said she was seeking a review of the licence on the grounds that he had failed to uphold the licensing objectives through multiple breach of conditions relating to the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, and keeping children from harm.

“The application is made following persistent and serious failures to comply with the conditions of the premises licence, despite repeated engagement and opportunities given to the premises licence holder to rectify matters,” she said.

Mrs Meetca said licensing officers had carried out inspections on February 7 and March 6 and found ‘widespread and repeated breaches of licence conditions’.

She said the premises demonstrated a ‘lack of effective management control, failure to engage meaningfully or promptly with the licensing authority, and an inability to demonstrate compliance through appropriate records’.

She added that the CCTV system was not working during inspections and for a prolonged period, and the licensing authority had been unable to verify that it had been repaired or reinstated.

“Incident records provided later were incomplete, retrospective and did not reflect real-time compliance,” she said.

“Records show incidents involving physical violence, threatening behaviour, police attendance, and many incidents occurred at a time when CCTV was not operational.” She added that staff were failing to search customers as required by the licence.

Mr Jones said damage to the CCTV system had been called by a leaking roof during heavy rainfall, which had also destroyed a number of records.