Worthing bar to keep license despite police concerns
It follows claims of 'extreme levels of drunkenness' at Molotov
Worthing Borough Council will take no action against a town centre bar after considering a call from Sussex Police to cancel its licence.
Police claimed there had been ‘extreme levels of drunkenness’ and ‘mismanagement’ at the Molotov Cocktail & Vodka Bar, in Chatsworth Road.
A meeting of the council’s licensing and control committee was told this undermined the licensing objectives covering public safety and the prevention of crime and disorder.
But, after a two-day hearing earlier this month, the committee decided the failures at the bar had been of a ‘minor nature’ and saw no reason to cancel the licence held by Beachcomber Leisure Ltd.
This was not the first time police had called for a review of the licence – it happened in November 2012 and July 2017.
Barrister Peter Savill, representing the police, said that while the bar was under scrutiny there was ‘a period where things improve’, only for them to ‘drift back to the way they were’ once that scrutiny had ended.
He added: “You have extreme levels of drunkenness on the premises, and you have general mismanagement – for example, either a lack of intervention by door supervising staff or, on some occasions, over-zealous attention by door supervising staff leading to heavy handed behaviour.
“So for all those reasons the police say enough is enough.”
David Dadds, representing Beachcomber Leisure, said the police were ‘wrong’ to call for the review and told the meeting there had only been two incidents at the bar in 2018.
He added: “We have over 42,000 people visiting our premises and to only have these two matters arising, that in itself is demonstrable to show that, actually, there is good order.”
Mr Dadds added that there had been one incident in 2019, which is still under investigation, and one in 2020, which happened as the new year dawned.
While deciding to take no action against Beachcomber Leisure, the committee recommended the firm trained its staff in the use of body worn video cameras and ID checker equipment.
The committee also recommended that Sussex Police and the bar liaised regularly to make sure things stayed on track.