Oxford, UK

Sunday, 1 March 2009

Nightclub told to improve after violence on premises

An Oxford nightspot has been told to clean up its act following outbreaks of violence.

Police ordered Kukui, in Park End Street, to attend a licence review just six months after it opened following 22 reports of crime including two “glassing” assaults.

'We, as the licensing authority, do not want any repetition of this record of incidents over the last few months'

John Goddard

Oxford City Council’s licensing sub-committee imposed a series of conditions on the nightclub’s licence during a hearing at the Town Hall on Thursday.

The conditions included replacing drinking glasses with plastic ones, increasing the number of door staff to seven every night and improving cloakroom security.

Committee chairman John Goddard said: “This new management has, for whatever reason, got off to a bad start.

“We, as the licensing authority, do not want any repetition of this record of incidents over the last few months. Incidents of glassings are extremely damaging not only to the reputation of the premises but the individuals concerned. They will be scarred for life and it is entirely unacceptable.”

The hearing was told the glassings took place in November.

On another occasion, in January, police were called after 100 revellers tried to surge into the club.

An emergency radio link to police used by Kukui was stolen last year and not reported, the committee was told.

Tony Cope, licensing co-ordinator for Oxfordshire Police, said: “We hope the improvements will help the premises stay out of the limelight and settle down to what they should be doing.

“It has always been a case of working together to get to a situation where incidents are minimal and it is a safe place where people can enjoy themselves.”

Club managers were also ordered to implement a search and queue management policy, set up an incident log book, train staff to deal with drunk or underage revellers and ensure all security staff wear high-visibility jackets, A bid by police to reduce the club’s capacity from 700 to 550 was rejected by the council.

Stuart Kerley, manager at the Hawaiian-themed venue, said the club had suffered few incidents of serious disorder and alleged reports of theft were in fact cases of lost property.

He added: “This has painted a very wrong picture of the premises and what we are trying to do. We have massive complimentary national press coverage and a management team with 50 or 60 years’ experience. The perception painted is very wrong.”

The club has already set up external queue crash barriers, replaced glass with plastic and is spending thousands of pounds on extra security training including dealing with crowd control, he added.

The city council proposed a new code of conduct for bars and clubs last year after topless dancers, naked wrestling and a live 12ft albino python entertained crowds at Kukui.

Mr Kerley has 21 days to appeal against the new licensing conditions.