City nightclub has licence revoked

A nightclub in Plymouth has had its licence revoked following an investigation by Devon and Cornwall Police and Plymouth City Council.

They said this is a rare occurrence in Plymouth and hasn’t happened to a nightclub since 2013.

Despite several attempts to work with the club over the last 18 months, a second hearing was brought to licensing sub committee earlier this month for a decision on the future of Club Inferno, Lockyer St.

Due to ongoing breaches of licence conditions, this second hearing took place to determine the club’s future and to discuss whether they had made the changes required of them at previous hearings.

Licence conditions had been imposed to ensure safety of customers using the club and to avoid noise from late night music spilling into neighbouring properties. The committee heard that the club had been given advice on how to comply with these conditions and opportunity to demonstrate that they could do it but had failed to do so.

At the first hearing in September, the club’s boss gave assurances that they understood the licence conditions and that they would comply with them. Despite this, noise complaints continued to be received and police licensing officers found multiple breaches of the licence following police attendance at a medical emergency.

Cllr Sally Haydon, Cabinet Member for Community Safety said: “This is not something we take lightly, we want a vibrant night-time economy and for people to be able to go out and have a good time, but we expect venues to operate in such a way that it supports the Licensing Objectives and keeps everyone safe, without affecting neighbours.

“This is rare for Plymouth, we have taken a stepped approach to assist the club to comply before asking the Committee to consider revocation as a last resort.

“The committee has carefully considered the representations of the applicants, the premises licence holder, the local residents and the police to reach the difficult decision of revoking the licence.”

The committee found that the licensing objectives of ‘prevention of public nuisance’ and ‘prevention of crime and disorder’ have been significantly undermined by the club. The licensing police highlighted multiple breaches of the licence and the committee heard how lives of residents in the immediate vicinity have been affected considerably by noise.

The committee found there was no reasonable explanation by the license holders for these repeated failures.