Wolverhampton venue licence revoked after ignoring rules in ‘year-long battle’ with police

Astoria in Skinner Street, Wolverhampton, had its licence removed after managers ‘continually ignored rules’ on notifying West Midlands Police before big events, which led to trouble. 

The venue also failed to provide officers with CCTV footage on time. 

The force said it had been in a year-long battle with Astoria, accusing them of 'undermining people’s safety' and ignoring requests to be notified of events – a key condition of its licence. 

Police said failing to make them aware of events throughout the year had led to disorder at the venue, including officers with Tasers. 

The council’s licensing committee chair Cllr Zee Russell said: “I think they are very lucky that they haven’t had a serious incident there.”

She added that the venue’s owners had 'no thought for anybody but the till' and the potential consequences 'didn’t even bear thinking about.'

The 700-capacity venue, billed as 'Wolverhampton’s premier multi-functional venue' has hosted Sky Sports boxing, Bongo’s Bingo, and Euro 2024 games as well as raves, DJ sets, gigs and stand-up comedy after opening last year.

The hearing heard how Astoria’s management were given several reminders with calls and e-mails ignored and the venue continued advertising events despite knowing they needed to notify police. Police licensing officers were told by management to only get in touch by e-mail 'unless it was urgent' and further requests were met with excuses and an 'obstructive' supervisor 'going off subject,' police said.

As a result, West Midlands Police said it was unable to risk-assess events and prepare properly. West Midlands Police also said another event was held at Astoria without warning despite the force asking for the venue’s licence to be reviewed by the council over the same rule-break just days earlier. 

The city’s ‘big’ venues were all subject to the same notification rules, the council said. 

West Midlands Fire Service also had its concerns saying the owners of Astoria 'took it upon themselves to carry on' despite knowing the venue could not open without its authorisation that the building was up to scratch and they had 'failed on numerous occasions' to complete fire safety checks. 

A check-list of work that needed to be completed before the venue could open to the public was never completed, the fire service said, and Astoria opened last year despite this. 

The venue’s fire alarms were also never fully serviced – with testing only carried out on the one floor that was occupied rather than the whole building. 

West Midlands Fire Service also said building regulations for the building had never been signed off after the building was converted from a bingo hall to events venue in 2008.

Fire safety officer Neil Aston-Bough also said he was concerned that despite licence holder Glenn Tarplee ‘surrendering’ his licence just 45 minutes before the meeting, the venue’s owners would continue the same practices under a new licensee. 

Days before the hearing, Mr Tarplee told City of Wolverhampton Council the venue was now in the process of being sold, adding that he would be removed as the designated licence holder and asked for the venue’s licence to be suspended until the sale was finalised. 

The venue is currently owned by Sam Evans who also runs cocktail bar Bank in the city centre’s Lichfield Street and the Hangar in Pearson Street. Nathan Thaker from SJE Leisure, which runs all the venues, was due to represent the former licensee Mr Tarplee at the hearing on Tuesday, December 17, before he surrendered his licence.

A report published ahead of the hearing said police had had 'concerns over the last few months' about the venue after requests for incident logbooks and further information needed for risk-assessing events resulted in a 'slow and delayed response.'

West Midlands Police added: “The premises have been advertising and holding events at the location and failing to inform [us] of these events. There is a specific condition that was placed upon the license to ensure that this was complied with. Both the licence holder and designed premises supervisor are fully aware of the existence of this condition and the requirement for compliance.

“It is important for West Midlands Police to be made aware of all events, in order for the event to be risk-assessed, then to communicate any risks and ensure measures are implemented to mitigate those risks with the premises. 

“Some of these events that West Midlands Police were not notified about resulted in disorder and the requirement for urgent additional police resources, including officers equipped with Tasers.”

City of Wolverhampton Council’s licensing department agreed with West Midlands Police saying the venue had shown “total disregard” for the conditions in its licence and was putting the public at risk. 

West Midlands Fire Service said the licence holder Glen Tarplee had signed an agreement in 2023 to ensure work was carried out before the new venue opened. Despite reminders, the venue opened without the approval of the fire service that the necessary work had been carried out. 

The fire service said the venue’s fire alarms had not been serviced as agreed, with it claiming an engineer was told to only service part of the system, which meant fires could have broken out in undetected parts of the 700-capacity venue. The engineer had “not been invited back and had not been paid,” the fire service added. It “finally” received an assessment of the venue’s capacity but was concerned it had not been carried out properly.

The venue was also supposed to have shown its capacity risk assessment to a professional before they were signed off but it was later confirmed to have not happened – with the fire service believing this move prevented the venue’s capacity from being reduced. 

“The fire risk assessor had not attended the site but had based his calculations upon measurement and plans supplied by the operator and had assumed all other fire safety matters were compliant – which they were not.”

West Midlands Fire Service said it had also recently received a complaint that Astoria’s fire alarm system had “multiple faults” and fire exits were signed as ‘out of order’.

The fire service also said building regulations involving the conversion of the bingo hall into a banqueting suite in 2008 were never signed off with 12 re-submissions put forward before finally being rejected in August 2008. “As the premises have never been deemed suitable under the building regulations for its current use, there may be other safety matters that have not been suitably addressed,” the fire service said. 

The former cinema opened in 1937 before later becoming a bingo hall. The building was turned into a banquet suite in 2008.

The previous Diamond Banqueting Suite was raided by police in 2021 who found a £700,000 cannabis farm. The venue was given a new licence a year later. 

Astoria opened in 2023 following a £1m makeover.