A Newport nightclub has agreed to operate under a new licence after police raised concerns over public safety at the premises. Gwent Police submitted an application for the licence of Cambrian Road’s Vibez Superclub to be reviewed in September.
In a licensing sub-committee meeting on Tuesday, October 31 PC Cheshire, licensing officer for Gwent Police, told the meeting: “This review was called because we felt over a period of time that things weren’t improving at Vibez Superclub. We’ve spent ten months on this including meetings, action plans and final warnings, and we felt there wasn’t any progression.”
But PC Cheshire noted that “mediation has gone smoothly” since owner of the premises Jack Bannister instructed solicitor Luke Elford of John Gaunt & Partners to begin liaising with the force on his behalf. For the latest Newport news, sign up to our newsletter here.
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Mr Bannister told WalesOnline on Wednesday: "The review application at Vibez came as an unexpected shock, but we worked diligently with the police and the licensing authority to reach an agreement allowing the venue to move forwards. Rather than dwelling on the allegations we've worked practically to secure the club's future. This allows us to get back to doing what we do best, being Newport's number one nightclub."
Asked what had prompted the application Mr Bannister said the force had taken issue with the security team's searches of customers entering the club. "The police ask for speculative weekly footage from the venue to check we are complying with the voluntary conditions we agreed to regarding the searching of every customer," he explained. "On reviewing this they have decided that some of the searches are not as comprehensive as they would like."
"The call for a review on the premises disappoints me greatly but, despite this, once a verdict is reached, we will not be sour. We will still comply fully with the police and licensing authorities, as we believe if we all work together, Newport can strive to have a successful and prosperous nightlife scene again, where customers feel safe not only attending our venues, but feel [the] same in the streets and surrounding areas.”
As a result of the review Mr Bannister agreed to replace his door staff, slightly shorten his opening hours, and agree to a long list of 55 conditions the club must abide by including a strict entry system. Under the new conditions the club can stay open from 7am until 4.30am seven days a week.
The new conditions include keeping an incident log which must be filled out no later than 24 hours after an incident has taken place at the club, such as the seizure of drugs or incidents of disorder, and ensuring a staff member conversant with the CCTV system is always on duty while the premises is open. Also noted within the conditions is a requirement that Gwent Police are called “without delay” in the event of a serious assault at the club, and that no individual will be allowed entry unless they have passed through a metal detecting arch, been scanned by a metal detecting device, or have been physically patted down.
Another condition states that no individual that has worked as an SIA (Security Industry Authority) licensed door supervisor at Mr Bannister’s separate Newport city centre venue The Greyhound pub or at Vibez between October 2022 and October 2023 can be employed at Vibez in the same capacity again. The Greyhound is also subject to a number of new conditions which it will have to comply with in order to be allowed to reopen after the council's licensing committee reviewed its licence last week. It came after Newport council received an application from Gwent Police on September 29 to review The Greyhound's licence. A council notice on the venue's door at the time said a summary licence review under the Licensing Act had been requested as: "In the opinion of a senior police officer the premises are associated with serious crime."
When speaking to WalesOnline in September Mr Bannister, who said he was "disappointed" by Vibez' licence review, said customers can attest there are "airport-like" security searches when entering the venue. He added: "In recent times knife crime has become endemic across the country and we came to a voluntary arrangement with Gwent Police to search every customer who enters the premises during nightclub trading despite this not being a condition of our licence. There have been no incidents involving knives inside the premises.
"Despite this voluntary agreement Gwent Police has identified occasions where in their opinion security staff have not searched customers thoroughly enough, which they identified through our own CCTV footage. Our security staff are contracted through a third-party company and where we have identified any failings in this voluntary agreement we have acted immediately by demanding additional training or removal of the individual from the door."
