Council says no to Crescent

Wednesday June 24, 2009

A controversial West Kensington nightclub, where a man was stabbed to death outside its entrance, was last night refused a longer license.

Mark Wale, director of Passion Nights Ltd – the owners of The Crescent Club – was told by Hammersmith & Fulham Council's Licensing Sub-Committee that the bar on North End Crescent would not be given an extension of its licensing hours.

The committee listened to angry residents who claimed The Crescent – which was initially intended to be a lap dancing club – was causing a rise in antisocial behaviour and disturbance in the area.

Last week, a 33-year-old man died following a mass brawl outside the club, following a Turkish themed evening at the premises.

Giving the panel's decision, Councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, chairman of the licensing sub-committee, said: “The panel has unanimously decided, in the light of the evidence and representations received, to refuse the application for a variation of licence.”

The club had applied to vary its hours so that it could stay open for an extra three hours until 5am from Thursday to Saturday, until 3am on all other weeknights and until 2am on a Sunday. A petition of 306 people supported the proposed new hours but 273 local residents objected to the changes.

Residents who spoke at the hearing said that the club had brought drug dealing back to the area, and that it often broke its licensing conditions by allowing customers into the bar after midnight, when there is a no re-admittance policy. There were also those who said customers frequently fought in the street, and vomited and urinated on their doorsteps and in their gardens.

Matthew Kennedy, of Edith Street, said: “Not only have I been woken in the early hours of the morning by the noise but the shouting, swearing, screaming and the sounds of breaking glass have led me to fear that a serious outbreak of violence was only moments away.

“I am also tired leaving my flat in the morning to go to work only to find pools of urine and vomit in the street.”

Jackie Mortimer, of Edith Villas, said: “The Crescent is acting as a catalyst and a magnet for undesirable people in the area.”

Jean Higgins of Edith Villas said: “Since the Crescent Bar and Club opened, I have experienced obstruction of the pavement by staff and customers; regular disturbances from music late at night; noisy patrons arriving and leaving, car doors slamming, tooting horns from traffic trying to navigate past people and parked cars, all until the early hours of the morning.”

There were also objections from the Metropolitan Police to the club opening later than its current hours. Inspector Daniel Stobbart, from Shepherds Bush, said: “I searched back through records and since December 2008 – over the past six months – there has been an increase in public nuisance and disorder.

“Often police have been unable to attend because the incidents are happening in the small hours at weekends when all police units are already busy – this trend will worsen if the opening hours are extended. I do sympathise with the residents - the incidents have been relatively low but the impact has been high because of the timing of them.”

He added that in the past six months there had been three separate reports suggesting that drugs were being used both inside and outside the club.

The sub-committee then heard that the council’s environmental health department had received 20 complaints since the opening of the club in November last year, relating to noise coming from the club or patrons leaving the premises.

However, speaking in support of the club, Seraphina Gillard-Marshall, of Stanwick Road, said: “I haven’t heard any noise whatsoever or heard any disturbance. I think we should support the club as a local business. If we leave the club open until 5am then the tubes are running and everyone will be able to use public transport to go home.”

Peter Glazebrook, representing Mr Wale and Passion Nights Ltd, called for a trial period lasting until November for the extension of the hours.

He said: “We ask that you grant this for six months and then we would have to reapply, or at least apply to retain it. We would be judged on that six months. It gives every incentive for us to deliver.”

“There is a balance to be struck and many residents, as we have seen from the petition, do favour the application. According to residents, any suspicious engagement in the street has something to do with the Crescent. It is wrong to associate and magnify these incidents with the Crescent Club and these are disproportionate and unfair.

“All in all there is a distortion of the situation. We’ve taken acoustic control of those noise problems and carried out particular recommendations to minimise noise at closing time. We are user-friendly and ensure that our measures are under constant review at all times.”

Joe Carlebach, co-chair of the Avonmore & Brook Green Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel, has lived in the area for 16 years. He spoke on behalf of local residents at the meeting and was pleased with the decision.

”I am delighted that the licensing panel has recognised the genuine concerns and worries of local residents in rejecting this licensing extension application,” he said. “I do hope that the club will learn lessons from this and try and integrate itself better in the community.

“We’re not anti-business and we’re reasonable people but there are some things we simply cannot accept and this application was one of them.”

In November last year, the council refused a variation of the bar’s licence to turn it into a lap dancing club. On that occasion the council received over 1,000 letters of objection from local people, including a petition signed by 250 residents. Passion Nights Ltd then appealed the decision but withdrew at the eleventh hour.

At last night’s meeting, Mr Wale said that the club had ‘no intention’ of reviving that idea and would not be having dancing at the venue in future.

He said: “I realise that the past application for lap dancing was wrong and we have no intention of running as a burlesque club.”

A joint licensing review may now be called by the Metropolitan Police.