Bury News
Nightclub allowed 4am opening at weekends
11:20am Monday 13th February 2012
OPENING a nightclub for two hours longer on four nights this month will not lead to a rise in crime, a committee has ruled.
GCHQ opened in Silver Street, Bury, in November and can open until 2am on Saturdays and Sundays.
The owners asked Bury Council if they can open until 4am on each Sunday in February, but the police objected.
They were worried about the prospect of hundreds of people being let out on the street at a time when the police had a limited number of officers on duty.
But a meeting of Bury licensing committee granted permission for the extended opening after holding talks with the club owners.
A report to last week’s meeting said: “The police have concerns that would undermine the licensing objective of crime and disorder. They believe that if the premises close at 4am, there will possibly be 499 potentially intoxicated and/or vulnerable customers emerging on to Silver Street when there will only be the night shift left on duty at that time, with responsibility to cover the whole borough.”
After the meeting, the committee’s chairman, Cllr Matt Bailey, said: “The club opened in November and has extended its opening hours before and we have not heard of any problems.
“We have had assurances from the club’s representatives that 499 people won’t suddenly be on the street at 4am.
“The club has a phased closing procedure, whereby they can close one room or stop people entering the club if it gets too busy.
“On top of that, the owners inform us that it would be very unlikely for that number of people to be still around at 4am as many people go home between 1.30am and 3am anyway.
“While we understand the police’s concerns, we do not believe that granting permission will lead to any problems.”
GCHQ and Nicholas Westwell, of Wakefield, who made the application to the council on behalf of GCHQ, were unavailable for comment.