Wolverhampton pub’s licence suspended after 'poor management' blamed brutal brawl
A pub’s licence has been suspended after its “poor management” was blamed for a brutal assault.
City of Wolverhampton Council has suspended the licence of the New Gate Inn in Bilston Road, Wolverhampton, for one month following a hearing on Wednesday (August 20).
The council’s licensing committee said the pub’s licence holder Raj Kumar Jassal had failed to notify the council over changes in staff for 17 years and blamed the poor management of the pub for the brawl that eventually saw a man rushed to hospital with a suspected fractured skull.
The brutal attack left the man with a one-and-a-half inch cut to the forehead, two black eyes and a broken nose.
Mr Jassal said while he lived above the pub and was named as both the licence holder and premises supervisor on the document, he was not involved with the day-to-day running since 2008.
The council’s licensing committee said the pub’s licence holder should have notified the council to change the licence when the supervisors had been replaced.
At the hearing on August 20, West Midlands Police said the pub’s licence had not altered since 2008 despite several changes in personnel and it was “no longer fit for purpose.”
Mr Jassal, the licence holder, said he was unaware that he needed to tell the council if the supervisor changed and had never done so and the pub’s current manager Paul Tonks, who is now officially named as supervisor, was also unaware that he needed to apply to the council.
As part of its licence, a pub must have a designated supervisor to be able to sell alcohol and the records must be kept up to date.
Both police and the council said they had “serious concerns” over the number of supervisors that had worked at the pub without notification of the council and as a result it was unclear who ran the pub and whether they were sufficiently qualified for the role.
“The poor management has appeared to contribute to the serious assault,” the council’s solicitor Kerryn Woollett said at the hearing.
City of Wolverhampton Council said it was also concerned by the lack of knowledge of licensing laws by the current manager Paul Tonks, who is now the designated premises supervisor, and he needed to re-do his training and be “brought up to speed.”
West Midlands Police also called for the pub’s opening hours to be cut with the previous licence stipulating the Bilston Road boozer could open from 7am to 2am every day.
The council agreed to cut the hours to 10am to midnight each day saying the change would allow Mr Tonks to “help him build good practice.”
The force criticised the pub for not replacing CCTV cameras that had been removed years earlier, saying it hindered their investigation into the brawl, but admitted the pub’s licence did not require cameras to be installed.
A request to make CCTV a requirement of the licence was also accepted.
