Council blocks bid for a 12-hour party at venue
PLANS for a 12-hour-long birthday party at a Derby venue linked with violence have been refused due to fears it would lead to crime and disorder.
Derby City Council’s licensing sub-committee rejected plans for the celebration to be held at Colombo House in Colombo Street on the weekend of Saturday, September 4.
Applicant Revel Orchard Pryce applied for a temporary event notice to allow a party to be held at the unlicensed premises between 4pm on Saturday afternoon and 4am on Sunday. The event would be to celebrate the applicant’s own birthday.
This, however, prompted a formal objection from Derbyshire police, which says Colombo House has a history of crime and disorder incidents starting in 2014.
It feared drinking until 4am could cause “unwanted alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour, crime and disorder into the early hours of the morning”. As a result of these concerns, officers said they had asked the applicant (Mr Pryce) to finish the licensing activities at 2am.
But no agreement was said to have been reached between the parties, meaning the council’s licensing team had to decide the event’s fate at a meeting yesterday.
PC Gemma Williamson, licensing enforcement officer at Derbyshire police, told the meeting the premises has no CCTV, which was of concern.
She said: “When we received the request, it immediately raised concerns due to the late hours requested and the possible adverse effects associated with it.
“Following an inspection of the premises PC Fowler (also a licensing officer) spoke with the applicant informing him he believed drinking until 4am could adversely impact the crime and disorder licencing objective due to people being heavily intoxicated.
“PC Fowler suggested a more reasonable time to finish would be 1am. The applicant said this would not work for this event as he had guests coming up from London and they would not be arriving until 11pm. “PC Fowler then suggested a modification to the time between 4am and 2am, even though this was later than what he was entirely comfortable with. He was under the impression that Mr Pryce was in agreement to these times but no reply or agreement was forthcoming from the notice giver.”
PC Williamson added the majority of previous serious incidents at Colombo House happened between 1.40am and 7.20am and in her professional opinion the later the hour drinking was allowed, the more issues of crime and disorder there were.
Mr Pryce told the meeting that he felt he did not have the chance to discuss with the police how his party was being organised. He claimed he would have had six registered security guards in place to ensure the smooth running of the event.
He said: “I have been holding events for a long time and I’ve never had any issue with any of my events. I have no records with the police or anything. My birthday event is actually a headphone party so therefore there would not be any noise.”
Mr Pryce can appeal against the council’s decision.