A Merthyr Tydfil town centre bar and nightclub wants permission to hold a “gentlemen’s evening”, including an exotic dancer. Pure bar and nightclub’s temporary event notice application will be considered by the council’s licensing committee on Thursday, October 20.
The High Street venue is applying for an extension to the permitted hours for an event on Saturday, October 22. The event is described as a gentlemen’s evening, which includes an adult performance/exotic dancer between 8pm and 1am.
The proposed timings are the sale of alcohol, live music and recorded music between 1am and 4am and the performance of dance from 11pm to 4am. Currently on a Saturday the venue has a licence for the sale of alcohol from 10am to 1am, recorded and live music indoors from 9am to 1am, performance of dance indoors from 8am to 11pm and opening hours from 8am to 1.30am. You can get more Merthyr news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The notice says the plan is to limit the attendance to a maximum of 350 people. But objections have been received from South Wales Police and the council’s environmental health department. Police have also questioned whether the bar has already breached its licensing hours on other occasions.
The police’s comments include: “Although the notice describes the proposed event as a ‘Gentleman`s Evening’, the premises’ social media promotes this event as a ‘Ladies and Gentleman’s Night’ with adult entertainment taking place on the top floor of the premises, whilst separate adult entertainment is taking place on the middle floor of the premises.”
South Wales Police’s comments say: “Pure Bar and Nightclub has been trading with current operators for less than a month (since September 17, 2022). The premises and management have no track record to evidence responsible management and control at this premises due to operating for such a short period of time.
“The provision of adult entertainment outside the deregulated hours and a three hour extension for the sale of alcohol is a major deviation from the current licence/activities. The applicant has not provided details how this ‘bespoke’ event would be managed and controlled in a safe and responsible manner (including the safety of the artistes).
“It is noted that the sale of alcohol would be available up to the proposed terminal hour of 4am, with no ‘drinking up’ time built into the proposed timings. It is noted that there is no mention of a dispersal policy once the event has ended.
“South Wales Police believe that with up to 350 patrons (the majority being under the influence of alcohol) exiting the premises after 4am, this proposed event would bring an increased risk of incidents of crime and disorder. The presence of this number of people in the town centre area of Merthyr Tydfil at this time, when all other venues (licensed premises and late night refreshment premises) having closed several hours earlier would also increase the risk of public nuisance incidents, (noise and anti-social behaviour) which could negatively impact any residents in the area.
“Despite the Section 182 guidance of the Licensing Act recommendation of a ‘light touch approach’ to temporary event notices, South Wales Police have no option but to object to this application, due to the adverse effect it would have on the licensing objectives, specifically, the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance.” The police also said that after viewing Pure Bar and Nightclub’s social media page, it had concerns regarding the premises management and suspected trading beyond permitted hours.
The police claimed promotional posts, dated September 24 and 28, displayed the opening times as Friday 7pm – 2am, Saturday 7pm – 3am, and one dated October 9 promoting an event being held on Saturday, October 29, displayed opening times of 8pm- 4am. The police’s objection added: “South Wales Police are not aware of any previous temporary event notices being submitted for Pure Bar and Nightclub to allow extended trading until the above terminal hours which exceeds the permitted hours on its current premises licence.
“South Wales Police would welcome a response from the applicant in relation to trading beyond their permitted hours on the above dates (it is appreciated that the third post is for a future event). It should be noted that trading beyond the permitted hours is an offence under the Licensing Act 2003.”
The environmental health department’s objection says: “The primary reason for the objection is the view that the licensing objective, the prevention of public nuisance cannot be met.” It adds that: “Environmental Health believe this has the significant potential to cause a noise nuisance to residents living in the locality of the premises with no mitigation being proposed by the applicant.”
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