Disturbances could close Bicester's only nightclub

10:00am Thursday 6th September 2012 in News

G's club G's club

BICESTER’S only nightclub could close over concerns about fights and disorder.

Thames Valley Police says Cherwell District Council must next week revoke the premises licence for G’s nightclub in Market Square.

There have been 298 incidents at the club in the last seven years, the equivalent of nearly one every week.

Officers said the club had not been “proactive” in dealing with 87 of those incidents and was “indifferent” to 132 more since 2005.

The force claims the club has only been proactive in dealing with 79 incidents during that time.

It branded the figures “unacceptable” and said the club was not sticking to last entry times or working with other venues enough.

But defiant club owner George Smith pledged to fight the action.

Force licensing officer Laura Morris said: “The level of intoxication of its customers is unable to be monitored effectively by staff and this then results in disorder inside and outside of the premise.

“The door staff regularly fail to intervene early in order to prevent instances from escalating.” Removing the licence is its “only option” she said.

An action plan was agreed between the club, council and police in 2008 over concerns about underage drinking, sale of alcohol to drunk patrons, behaviour of door staff and “general management”.

Last entry on Friday and Saturdays was changed from 2.30am to 2.15am in June but police said this is “not being strictly adhered to”.

It also said club managers do not regularly attend meetings of the town’s Pub Watch scheme, which brings venue owners together.

The force said there had been times when the club’s radio was not working, on the wrong channel and was not being monitored.

Yet George Smith, who has run the venue for 25 years, said: “I find it incredible to be honest. When you look at it, when you break it down, it is about three incidents a month.

“I have been trading from the same site now for 25 years and I have never experienced what the police are alleging.”

He said revellers are not let in late and he struggled to attend 10am Pub Watch meetings as he works as late as 4am.

The council’s licensing sub committee will be asked to make a decision when its meets on Monday at Bodicote House in White Post Road, Bodicote, at 10am. The public can attend.

Powers include modifying, suspending or revoking the licence.

Comments(12)

snert says...
11:24am Thu 6 Sep 12

Hiring thugs and idiots on the door doesn't help matters. Door staff are there to provide security and to try to dissolve issues that arise. Many issues are aggravated by aggressive handling by the door staff. I agree that dealing with drunken idiots is not easy and you cannot reason with a drunk person who is being agressive and vioent towards others but there are better ways than just piling in and fighting with themand then claiming that they were drunk knowing that they won't have a defense because of it.

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hagar1 says...
12:55pm Thu 6 Sep 12

I wouldn't trust what the Police say about any incident in the Town after 10 at the weekend as they are the 'hired' thugs that cause most of the issues!

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King Joke says...
1:28pm Thu 6 Sep 12

'Bicester's only nightclub' says it all. Of course funnelling a whole town's worth of customers into one venue is going to cause trouble. The current licensing regime is the cause of most of the aggravation, an excuse for the lucky late licence holders to print money, and as Snert says, treat the people who pay their wages like siht.

The market needs opening up, with hours totally deregulated. You stay in the pub you were in, or you walk over to a nightclub, the choice is yours. The crowds get diluted, customers are not forced into a 'vertical drinking' space where tempers can flare, and venues have to start treating their customers a lot better.

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Bicesterlad says...
2:40pm Thu 6 Sep 12

Bicester needs a to allow have put a night club in the new developement when they build the Cinema next to sainsburys.
But no as Bicester folk need to be in bed by 10pm.

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Bored in Bicester says...
4:54pm Thu 6 Sep 12

The fact it has taken them 25 years to realise the place needs closing down is beyond me. maybe the brown envelopes have stopped being sent! ive got a funny feeling they will get a last minute reprieve though.......

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vicky0820 says...
4:58pm Thu 6 Sep 12

King Joke wrote:
'Bicester's only nightclub' says it all. Of course funnelling a whole town's worth of customers into one venue is going to cause trouble. The current licensing regime is the cause of most of the aggravation, an excuse for the lucky late licence holders to print money, and as Snert says, treat the people who pay their wages like siht.

The market needs opening up, with hours totally deregulated. You stay in the pub you were in, or you walk over to a nightclub, the choice is yours. The crowds get diluted, customers are not forced into a 'vertical drinking' space where tempers can flare, and venues have to start treating their customers a lot better.
i agree with you all the pubs close around the same time so all the people still wanting to socialize have to go to g's, its asking for trouble !

i dont agree with what you 'oxford mail' has said, i go out near enough twice a week and theres never been a major incident that hasnt quickly been handled by the police and george, i enjoy going there as i get on with all the staff and bouncers, and they have also helped me on a few occations when i have been intoxicated, making sure i get home safely, so i really do think this article is unfair considering most of the people that are making this disition have obviously never walked threw the door, as for underage people, since i have been going there (nearly 4 years) there hasnt been much of a problem and when there is, its sorted it out quickly and without fuss.

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King Joke says...
6:12pm Thu 6 Sep 12

It's very sad that the people who will probably decide on this matter have never been in this place, or out in Bicester for years. Never mind it will leave a large and expanding town with no nightlife at all, as long as they have nice restaurants to go to they won't be bothered.

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Stacey 73 says...
9:38pm Thu 6 Sep 12

   I've spent many a good night that has been completely trouble free in G's and really hope that the council open there eyes and see that George and his team can not be held responsible for the bad behaviour of a small number of individuals that can't go out and have a good night with out getting in a fight and throwing up over themselves and can i just say reference the girl mentioned in the article surely it was the responsibility of the girls sister and her boyfriend to look after her and tell her to stop drinking and not supplying her with more I'm pretty sure that if the bar staff had seen her they wouldn't have served her!!!

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Severian says...
11:25pm Thu 6 Sep 12

It's incredible to me that this place is still open. For years it's had an incredibly bad reputation, with stories of drinking and violence being reported in the press and from friends. I avoid it at all costs.

What we really need is a return to sensible drinking hours, not extending them in even more bars in Bicester.

The problem is that many people simply don't know when they've had too much, and we have to protect the majority from the results of their drinking.

Bring back 11pm closing time, I reckon.

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merlin01 says...
3:08am Fri 7 Sep 12

What a load of rubbish!! I have been going to G's for many years, and just for the record, I actually witnessed the May 7th 'incident' and gave a statement to the police, and it was caused by 2 drunk idiots trying to get in after hours on a monday night after getting paralytic in another pub, and being refused entry as it as closed and they were too drunk to be served anyway!! They actually got aggressive and violent towards staff and other customers, and then had the nerve to call the police when people used self defence against them to protect themselves!!! The majority of incidents in G's are caused by people who are already intoxicated from going to OTHER venues, trying to get in and being turned away so really wish that some people would get their facts right!! Surely closing G's would actually mean that the whole town would swarm down to the taxi rank at 2am, causing further problems from drunken prats trying to push in and queue jump!! I see this every time I go into town as it is and I think it would just make the problem worse, not better!! Yates have just as many incidents as G's but for some reason, they turn a blind eye, so who is lining whose pockets exactly?

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King Joke says...
9:26am Fri 7 Sep 12

Severian said: ''The problem is that many people simply don't know when they've had too much, and we have to protect the majority from the results of their drinking.

Bring back 11pm closing time, I reckon.''

Have you read any of the above posts Severian? The problems are mainly caused by arbitrarily imposed time limits, not solved by them. Do you honestly believe chucking out an entire town's worth of customers at the same time will stop trouble? If you do you're a fool. I'm old enough to remember what it was like in the 80s and 90s when this indeed what happened, and I can tell you it caused no end of trouble.

Later hours has reduced the opportunity for conflict, but time limits are still imposed by committee, and still have the effect of 'funnelling' people into certain venues as the imposed time limits throw customers out of where they want to be, and force them all into somewhere where they can come into conflict with others, with fewer and fewer venues open as the evening goes on. It is the indignation caused by this, aggravated by aggressive security staff, that leads to trouble.

At any rate closing at 2300 doesn't reduce consumption, people just start drinking earlier. Complete deregulation will mean people taking it easy and going out for a drink at 10 pm, rather than 7 pm, which is what happens on the continent.

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still awake says...
5:03pm Mon 10 Sep 12

I'm a resident of Bicester and am torn by some of the opinions voiced above as i agree the management of G's is not entirely to blame for the behavior of its patrons however i do accept there are certain areas where they are simply too lenient. Despite what others have said above i think G's generally has more trouble than Yates (thats not to say Yates doesn't have its own troubles). Most of that can be put down to the fact G's is generally the place people go when they are banned from the other late license bars/pubs/clubs in Bicester i have never seen or heard of anyone being banned from G's (again not to say they haven't been but you hear about people being banned from other places but never G's). Bicester already has very very little to do for anyone with any free time so what do you expect people to do other than drink? Closing these places earlier will do nothing but drive everyone to the taxi rank at the same time as drunk as ever which will just move the problem and solve nothing. Also pubwatch only works as well as it is enforced, and it is not enforced well if at all in someplaces. At the end of the day the only way to stop this trouble is to stop serving the trouble makers full stop if they can't by a drink in Bicester town then chances are they won't be fighting there either.

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