Update on licence bid for Birmingham venue where footballer Cody Fisher was killed

Former Birmingham City FC academy footballer Cody Fisher, who also played for Bromsgrove Sporting and Stratford Town, was fatally stabbed at the Crane nightclub on Boxing Day 2022.

Following the incident, the club’s premises licence was suspended as an interim step and later revoked.

But businessman Matthew Boulter, of Kanvas Birmingham Limited, applied for a new licence at the premises, based at 50 Adderley Street in Digbeth.

The application sought to permit the sale of alcohol from 10am until midnight Monday to Sunday and the provision of ‘regulated entertainment’, such as live music.

At a licensing meeting this month, Mr Boulter spoke about the potential the premises had, saying it would be “so good for Digbeth if we get it right”.

“There’s a lot of history with the premises, which is going to be bad for a lot of people – I understand that,” he said. “I really feel for the victims.

“Now the structure I’m trying to put together is to run it as humanly safely as possible.”

But Mr Boulter’s proposals faced opposition from West Midlands Police over concerns the new application could be linked to the previous operators.

“The venue previously operated as The Crane nightclub where a young man, Cody Fisher, lost his life on Boxing Day 2022 after being stabbed to death inside the venue,” police said before the meeting.

“West Midlands Police believes the application now being made is linked to the previous owners and is not a completely new and detached operator looking to reopen the venue.”

It said an appeal by licence holder Digital Arts Media Ltd against the previous decision to revoke the licence was “still months from being resolved”.

“This application, if granted, could mean 50 Adderley Street could be trading well before the appeal is heard and determined by the appeal court,” it said.

“The council ought not to endorse the current attempt to bypass the earlier decision of the council to revoke the licence and deprive the appeal court of the opportunity to consider and determine the current appeal.”

Police said last year there was an approach about a new licence with the applicant company being Kanvas Holdings Ltd, which listed its sole director as Mr Boulter.

A meeting about the application was attended by a separate individual who said he would be applying as a contractor/advisor – but it later emerged he was reportedly a shareholder in Digital Arts Media Ltd, according to police.

“The new application was clearly linked to the current ownership of The Crane and was not in fact a new operator,” West Midlands Police said.

Towards the end of 2024, solicitors indicated that individual was no longer part of the proposals.

A new application was submitted in the name of Kanvas Birmingham Ltd.

But Gary Grant, barrister for West Midlands Police, told the meeting this month: “We, the police, having met with Mr Boulter and having considered the previous approaches about a new licence for this premises, […] are not satisfied, we’re not persuaded there is no connection between the old and the new.”

‘Schoolboy error’

Paddy Whur, a licensing solicitor representing the applicant, said Mr Boulter made a “schoolboy error” in asking the individual to “front up” the meeting with the police for him.

He insisted there would be a team in place at the premises that was “well though-out, resourced and independent of the previous ownership”.

“It’s a situation where it’s a brand-new company, brand-new individual,” he added.

“If you granted this licence, there wouldn’t be a more robust conditioned licence in Birmingham.

“That, in conjunction with the reduced hours, we would suggest, makes you look at an application which is significantly away from the premises licence that failed previously under the very different ownership.”

The application was rejected by the licensing sub-committee following the meeting this month.

The decision notice read: “The sub-committee’s reasons for [refusal] were due to the concerns which were raised by those making representations, principally West Midlands Police, relating to what was described in the meeting as the connection between ‘the old and the new’, namely the previous operator and the instant applicant.”

It was a decision likely to be welcomed by Mr Fisher’s mother Tracey, who has been opposed to 50 Adderley Street reopening as an event space.

A solicitor attending the licensing meeting on her behalf said: “Cody was stabbed to death on the premises and his life was taken incredibly cruelly when he was only 23.

“Since that day, our client feels her own life has ended, as though she was stabbed through her heart on that fateful night.

“Her youngest son and her best friend has never come home.”

“One life lost is one too many and no family should ever have to go through what our client and her family have been through,” he added.