Birmingham bar coronavirus breaches 'unprecedented', health chiefs say

PBs on Key Hill in Hockley, Birmingham, is facing a revocation of its licence after police said they had "no confidence" that the licence holder could protect either customers or staff.

During a four hour licensing meeting the committee were shown several CCTV and police bodycam videos which showed a packed bar on August 7, with no evidence of social distancing taking place.

Pc Rohomon, of West Midlands Police, said: "There’s no compliance whatsoever. There's no social distancing, there's no track and tracing, there's no people sitting down, there's people dancing, there's people smoking.

"All these things don't leave me as a professional licensing officer to come back with the thought ‘this is a licence holder who knows what she’s doing, she’s made a one off mistake and she can learn from this’. It’s not.

"It just seems to be ‘OK, I’m going to carry on and I’m going to make as much money as I possibly can.’ We cannot trust her to comply in future, and there is no other option than revocation."

In documents from an expedited review last month officers described visiting the bar in early August, where they observed people "dancing on a raised platform and other customers standing around inside the premises".

In another visit on August 15 one officer stated that, when he arrived, there were "around 30 persons inside all standing and around half that number outside with no social distancing taking place in the premises", with a video of the incident also shown to the committee.

Government guidelines dictate that people should be seated and that social distancing measures should be in place at all times.

Speaking at the meeting, a spokesperson for Public Health Birmingham said the breaches by the bar were "unprecedented", adding: "It’s probably one of the worst examples we could ever wish to see of non-adherence to guidance."

And this was a view supported by an officer from environmental health, who also recommended that the licence be revoked.

A representative for the licence holder, Ms Nickeshia Reid-Davidson, admitted that the breaches had been "unacceptable", but argued that she should be given a second chance to prove she could be a responsible licence holder.

"This has served as a sobering lesson to her, and she’s been very upset by this," her spokesperson said.

"It’s taken this intervention by West Midlands Police in order for her mind to be properly focussed on the seriousness of the situation. But she’s taken a lot of positive steps and she’s under no illusions that she needs to follow up on all the things that I suggested she do, in order that she can promote the licensing objectives going forward and have an environment that’s safe.

"These premises have clearly fallen short of where they should be, I can’t deny that. She’s messed up, she acknowledges that, but she’s just asking you for a chance really. If this licence is revoked she’s lost the business, she’s lost her livelihood. It would be wrong of me not to make that point to you.

"She’s genuinely sorry that she’s screwed up, and she just wants a chance to go again. And she recognises she needs a period of time to get those things in place, which is why I would invite you to fall short of full revocation of the licence, recognise that she’s learnt her lesson and just give her a chance to keep the business going."