The Ghost Club in Farringdon Road, scene of much disorder and a shooting in December, has appealled against Islington Council’s ruling on 11th January that its licence should be curtailed to 1.00am.

The appeal will be heard at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on  18th and 20th May.

Islington Council lawyers and licensing team will now liaise with local residents about getting some volunteers to appear as witnesses.

Meanwhile,  Piya Piya, a restaurant in City Road which operates as a nightclub at weekends,  had its hours curtailed at a licensing hearing on Monday, as a result of a “review” brought by residents of the Lexington flats, opposite the premises.  The Committee, on which I served, heard a long list of incidents of noise, drug-dealing andnon-compliance with licensing conditions, culminating in a street brawl on 29/30th January which took police arriving in 10 minibuses and cars to deal with.

Piya Piya will now have to cease licensable activities at 12.30am and close completely at 1.00am.

Myddelton Square is to get a make-over.

Consultation is to start almost immediately, in order to develop a brief for what local people want to see happen, within the available funds.   It is envisaged that there will be a leaflet, some door-knocking by Council staff, followed by a steering group of local stakeholders and residents to oversee the progress of the scheme.

This will be funded partly by about £250,000 “section 106″ funding from the Angel Centre development, and partly by the “Playbuilder” scheme for upgrading kids’ play areas.

This is good news.  Residents in the area have had to put up with a great deal of noise and disturbance from the Angel Centre redevelopment works, now nearing completion at the corner of St John St and Pentonville Road.  The square itself, though well-used, is looking its age.

Consultations on public open spaces can bring out conflicts between different types of user, and we must try to minimise this.  Dog walkers, children and tree-lovers all have legitimate views but the result is always a compromise.

The timescale is intended to result in the works being complete and ready for an official re-opening by April 2011.

A number of new initiatives affecting licensing and alcohol, local and national, are taking place and will affect Clerkenwell.

First up is that the Council is consulting Clerkenwell residents and businesses about declaring the ward a “designated public place,” sometimes known as a “controlled drinking zone.”

The proposal, if approved after consultation, would give Police the power to require anyone drinking in the open air to desist and if necessary to confiscate the alcohol itself.

At present, it’s not an offence. The Police do have ever-increasing powers to move on people who are causing a nuisance, for periods of up to 48 hours, and to confiscate alcohol from under-18s.  But they can’t just tell someone to stop drinking and confiscate their alcohol.

This is intended to deal with several very different issues: street-drinkers and football-playing Travelodge guests in Vernon Square as well as clubbers and drinkers predominantly in the Farringdon area.

Notice will be formally published in this week’s Islington Gazette and leaflets will be distributed throughout the ward, asking for comments.

Secondly, the impact of the Clerkenwell Charter is to be assessed by the Council and NHS Islington.  It may then be altered or extended to other parts of the Borough.  This is a code of conduct for licensees in the area and over half those in the Farringdon area have signed up to it.  Read a copy of it here (NB some corporate servers won’t connect to it - use your home computer.)

Thirdly,  there will be a consultation about declaring Clerkenwell “saturated” with licensed premises, under the Council’s licensing policy.  This would make it more difficult for new licensed premises to be set up here.

Lastly, the Council’s scrutiny committee on Regeneration is conducting an inquiry into licensing in the Borough, and will make recommendations for further policy developments. I joined it on a tour of licensed premises in the borough one Friday night recently, ending up in Clerkenwell at about 3.00am.

Meanwhile, the Government has introduced new rules from 6th April so that all pubs, clubs and bars will:

• have to stop irresponsible promotions such as “all you can drink for £10”; “girls drink free” etc or some stag-night practices such as pouring drink into a customer’s mouth; and
• offer free tap water.

In October, any such premises offering wine by the glass will have to offer 125ml glasses and not just 175ml or whopping 250ml (1/3 bottle) glasses.  It will be compulsory to have an age-ID checking system.

Local councillors have now been allowed to start licence reviews and make objections in their own right.

In a further retreat from the policies enshrined in the Licensing Act 2003, licensing authorities will be able to specify a common terminal hour in certain areas - but not before 3.00am.

Today, Islington Licensing Committee reviewed Ghost’s licence and ordered that in future it should close at 1.00am, not opening again until 10.00am on Sundays or 7.00am on other days.

It also removed its owner, David Serlui, as the Designated Premises Supervisor of the premises and ordered that the Club should not reopen until CCTV had been installed externally and its sound system recalibrated to control noise.

It also ordered that another 25 conditions be added to its Licence.

Police: “Out of Control, a hot spot for crime, disturbance and violence”

The Committee heard a senior police officer say that the premises were out of  control, the functioning of the club having been assumed by its (now sacked) security firm.  Evidence from an undercover police officer hours before the shooting on 13th December reported that none of the security staff were wearing their identity badges, as required, and that they appeared to be pursuing their own admissions policy, causing resentment among those waiting outside.

There had been a total of 36 calls to the Police since February 2009 relating the the premises, he added.  Of these 11 related to violence, 5 were drug-related and 11 about antisocial behaviour.

He concluded that Mr Serlui was not operating the premises appropriately; that the Committee should consider removing him as DPS; and that the current opening hours would not support the licensing objectives of reducing crime and public nuisance.  The Club was a hotspot for crime, disorder and violence.

More than 20 residents had put in objections asking the Committee to revoke the club’s Licence completely. They reported a downward spiral of disorder, drug-dealing, noise and fights, bringing an atmosphere of menace to their previously peaceful neighbourhood over the last 12 months.  Serlui’s attempts to deal with their concerns had made matters worse.

Mr Serlui had parted company from his lawyers and represented himself.  His response consisted firstly of a sustained attempt to stop me commenting on his activities at all, claiming that I should have been “objective” throughout, assisting him to open his night club.  In this he failed and the Committee allowed me to say what I wanted, on behalf of the dozens of constituents who have complained to me about the club.

His story was then that the Club had become popular among the black community as a result of its “fair and non-discriminatory” admission policy.  It was only in November 2009 that the police made him aware of their serious concerns about drugs, firearms etc and about his security firm.  A change to a new firm was agreed to take place in January 2010, but - sadly - before this could take place, someone had inexplicably smuggled a gun of unknown size into the Club and shot someone.   He was now suing his former security firm.

Some of the calls to the Police were from the club itself, in order to arrest people fighting or found to be dealing in drugs.  On one night (7th/8th November) he had even hired an (ex-Police) consultant to observe the Club, who saw nothing amiss.  The Committee itself noted that the Police had been called 4 times to the Club on 8th November alone - apparently unremarked by the consultant.

On one occasion the club had been “steamed” by a group of youths, he added.  Some of the residents’ evidence was mistaken because the club was closed on the dates on which they said disorders had taken place, he asserted.  Many nearby licensed premises were the source of some disorders.

I told the committee that the residents and police evidence showed there had been incidents on 14 of the last 15 weekends it had been open.

I asked that Mr Serlui be sacked as DPS in any event and that the licence of the club should be revoked completely in order that the future of any licensable activities in it could be considered completely afresh.  The premises were totally unsuitable for the three “shifts” of up to 400 clubbers Mr Serlui was bringing through the premises every Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Mr Serlui now has 21 days to decide whether to appeal against the decision.

Today, Clerkenwell’s Lib Dem Councillors are starting a campaign to get the Ghost Night Club closed down, following incessant disturbance, violence, noise, disorder, traffic chaos and now, a shooting.

Follow this link to our campaign web site, and  - if you live in one of the streets named there - sign our petition OR submit your own written comments to Islington Council by 30th December 2010.

We will be happy to help people make individual comments on the review, as these carry more weight than any petition.  Contact George Allan if you would like help.

There is a link to the Islington Gazette coverage of the shooting incident here.

Ghost, the controversial night club in Farringdon Road, has been closed down, pending a formal “review” of its licence, by the Licensing Committee of Islington Council this afternoon.

The Police closed the club at 4.00am on Sunday 13th December, following a shooting incident which has left one man in hospital with serious gunshot wounds.  The Police then applied to Islington to extend the ban until the review had taken place.

This is only the latest episode.  Ghost opened in February 2009 and has been the subject of a tide of complaints about its management and the behaviour of its customers, ever since.  Despite two meetings with residents (the second on 30th November) nearby residents in Farringdon Road, Farringdon Lane, Ray Street and Pear Tree Court told its owner David Serlui that weekends had become intolerable and that his attempts to mitigate the problems had been ineffective.  These included noisy parking and door-slamming, loud music from parked cars, broken glass, litter, customers urinating and conducting loud conversations under their windows at 4.30am.

The options open to the Licensing Committee will include revoking the licence completely, altering its conditions, removing the right to carry out some licensable activities, curtailing its hours and removing Mr Serlui as its designated premises supervisor.

I will ensure that nearby residents  have every opportunity to make their views known in the forthcoming review, and will post details of the timescale for this as soon as I can.

The Farringdon area is turning out to be “geotechnically exciting and every bit as challenging as we thought”, Crossrail’s Tim Grimshaw told a large meeting of the Community Liaison Panel on 24th November, called to discuss the latest developments in the huge construction projects now in progress around Farringdon station.  A picture of the completed western end station is shown here.

The meeting was chaired by my colleague Cllr Marisha Ray and here are the highlights:

Thameslink say they are progressing normally.  They are doing underpinning work in Turnmill St, while the Cardinal Tower has been scaffolded prior to the imminent start of demolition. The southern bit of Farringdon station has now disappeared, as has Steve Crosby’s former meat shop in Charterhouse St.

Work will start soon to divert services to allow the rebuilding the bridge which constitutes Cowcross Street outside Farringdon Station.  This will take much of 2010 and involves hoardings blocking much of the space.  The security and safety aspects of this caused us some concern, particularly during peak hours for travel and clubbing.

There will be major track closures between Christmas and New Year, to coincide with other major work at Blackfriars.  Keep an eye out for signage advising of these.

On Crossrail,  the rather mixed news is that the extensive drilling of boreholes in the area for the last six months is going to continue in January 2010 in the St John’s Lane/ St John St/ Eagle Court area.

The “geotechnically exciting” nature of the area explains why some of the boreholes will be within feet of the previous ones.  Crossrail is trying to locate a geological fault running through the area, and to plan the “dewatering” of some of the layers they will have to drill through.  This has obvious implications for the stability of buildings in the area during and after tunnelling starts.

Planning of the replacement building for Cardinal Tower is advancing with developers Cardinal Lysander, but there is nothing to be consulted on yet.  The owners of adjacent Caxton House are considering demolition soon but there are no details on this yet.

Property is being acquired in the Charterhouse St/Lindsey St area to enable work on the eastern ticket hall to start.  The Moorgate branch will be de-commissioned in the New Year.

Tim drew our attention to a major supplement on Crossrail from New Civil Engineer, which has a feature on Farringdon here.

An “outreach” exercise by both projects found that 73% of businesses in the area feel they know what is going on in the area.  Sadly of course some of them will be closing soon as part of the work - notably all the shops currently in the station building in Cowcross St.

Malcolm Cree of Islington Council told the meeting what steps the Council is taking to keep the area clean during the works.  Litter bins outside Farringdon are emptied 7 times a day, he said.  The new pop-up urinal is working well and the City Corporation is considering putting some up on its site of the boundary.  55 people have been issued with fixed penalty notices for littering in Cowcross Street in the last 6 months and the message is starting to get through.

The next Liaison Panel will take place in March 2010 - date to be decided. Presentations will include those on accessibility issues,  the skill training opportunities and an update on things geological.

It looks as though we are all going to hear more about what the engineers think is going on under our feet and how confident they are about its effects on our familiar buildings over the next 8 years!

Residents of Clerkenwell have overwhelmingly supported a move to make all roads in the ward - other than the main through routes - subject to a 20mph limit.

The area between Rosebery Avenue and Pentonville Rd in Clerkenwell is already a 20mph “zone” - ie, complete with road humps - but the new proposal was to make the remainder into 20mph “areas” - subject to the same limit but without the humps.

The Council’s South Area committee unanimously agreed to this proposal at its meeting on 23rd November 2009.  The new limit will affect all of Clerkenwell other than Kings CrossRd/Farringdon Rd, Clerkenwell Rd, Goswell Rd, Rosebery Ave and Pentonville Rd.  St John Street will thus be subject to the new limit.

I voted for this, and I am immensely encouraged by how far we have come since I was first elected.  Ten years ago, some drivers seemed to think it was OK to travel at 60mph along our streets, angrily hooting at anyone impeding their progress.  Now, drivers often give way voluntarily to pedestrians at road junctions.

The plan is part of a borough-wide initiative which may well result in all residential roads in Islington becoming 20mph.  The existing 29 20mph zones have already halved the number of people - many of them children - killed or seriously injured on Islington’s roads from 227 in 2001 to 112 in 2007.

Council highways engineers explained that the thinking is that through traffic will stick to main roads rather than have to slow down to go through residential areas.  Because the new areas are not self-enforcing, the effect on actual speeds will be monitored and humps will be considered if necessary.

The papers for the meeting are available here.

Many thanks to everyone who signed the Clerkenwell Licensing Petition, which was presented to the Council on 8th October.

As a result, Islington Council is going to consult Clerkenwell residents and businesses on declaring the area “saturated” with licensed premises.  If adopted, this will mean that anyone asking for a new licence - to sell alcohol - will have to show special reasons why it should be granted, in view of the 135 licensed premises we already have.

In a separate move, a Controlled Drinking Zone around Vernon Square is also to be consulted upon, following a variety of problems there (see separate post coming shortly).

The announcement about saturation was made by Cllr Greg Foxsmith, Executive member for the Environment, at last week’s full Council meeting, in response to a question from local resident Martha Burnige of Wharton St.  (There is a 40-minute “question time” for residents to ask Executive members a question submitted in advance, plus a “supplementary.”)

Earlier, I had presented the first instalment of the Clerkenwell Licensing Petition, in which over 100 residents had signed up on the doorstep, or on-line, backing our calls for a saturation policy, controlled drinking zones,  endorsing the Clerkenwell Charter for licensees and asking for reforms of the infamous “Temporary Event Notice” system.

Later in the meeting there was a debate on a motion I had put down, denouncing Labour’s Licensing Act 2003 for its top-down, one-size-fits-all policies which made it virtually impossible to respond to residents’ legitimate expectations of controls on licensing.  This was passed by the Council, which rejected half-hearted Labour attempts to water it down.

Many local publicans support the “saturation” move.  Maybe it will limit the scope for additional competition; maybe it also reflects a recognition that things have gone too far.

We’ll give further news here about the consultation as it develops.

If you enjoy watching demolition, Clerkenwell is the place to be for the next few months!

Currently, there is not much going on  but that is about to change, big time, a meeting of the Farringdon Community Liaison Forum heard on 6th July.  This meeting brings representatives of local residents together with the Islington, Thameslink and Crossrail staff directly concerned with the operations around Farrringdon.

Charterhouse St and Farringdon Road will see more destruction than they have since the infamous V2 rocket  landed at this spot in March 1945 killing 110 people.

That’s why I am calling the next few months the Clerkenwell Festival of Demolition, with Thameslink and Crossrail as the main sponsors.

Unlike other festivals, this will play to a rather reluctant audience of residents, commuters and other workers in the area.  The opening event will be the relatively minor demolition of Steve Crosby’s meat shop in Charterhouse Street, in the next few weeks, to give access to the track area.

The main event will be the demolition of Cardinal Tower, the unlovely 1960s block in Farringdon Rd,  and the warm-up has already started with “soft” stripping-out.  August will see the erection of scaffolding - plastic wrapped - and a tower crane, before the serious demolition of the structure starts in late September.

It’s a double bill.  The owners of adjacent Caxton House (another unlovely 1960s block, seen here) have said they will also be demolishing their building at the same time.  September will also see internal  demolition work at Farringdon Station.

A planning application for a new “integrated ticket hall” serving both Thameslink and Crossrail in Cowcross St will go to the planning committee on 8th September and I understand that it will not be demolished until then.

As a sort of “fringe” event nearby, contractors for the Goldsmith’s Company will be demolishing part of the former Eagle Court school shortly, for their new craft centre there (see previous post).

Noise control

Islington Council pollution team member Dan O’Sullivan told the Liaison meeting how Islington will be monitoring the noise, dust and vibration issues from Thameslink/ Crossrail.  Airborne dust monitors are being installed in Charterhouse Square and Greville St.

His team can be reached via 020 7527 3340 or Contact Islington  on 020 7527 2000 (24/7).  In the event of complaints, his team needs to have basic details such as when an incident happened, where, what it was and how long it lasted.  Camden residents should ring Islington as the works will all be on its side of the boundary.

National Rail Information & Complaint Line

National Rail (who are in charge of the Thameslink work and most of the above-ground work at Farringdon) have a 24/7 information line on 08457 114141. If a problem is clearly related to Thameslink work (including Cardinal Tower) then ring this line first and Network Rail claims this will resolve the complaint faster than via the Council.

In the longer term, Crossrail will start drilling a pilot tunnel for the new station platforms in 2011, long before the 4 main tunnelling machines arrive at Farringdon (where they will eventually be dismantled and removed.)

If you live near Farringdon Station in a block of flats you probably already have a representative on the liaison panel but do contact me to check.  The next meeting is scheduled for 15th September,  just before Cardinal Tower and Caxton House finally start coming down.

In due course, there will be a replacement building for Cardinal Tower - but there are no proposals for this yet.  A replacement for Caxton House has been given permission.