East London council rejects industrial estate nightclub plan

LDN Riverside had applied for a new premises licence on the Abbey Wharf Industrial Estate in Barking that would host music events specialising in house and electronic music from Friday through to Sunday.

The events company behind LDN Riverside said in council documents the new venue would: “provide a cultural and entertainment hub for Barking’s young professional demographic to complement the exciting influx of commercial, domestic and transportation development to the area.”

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The events company already has a sister venue in Canning Town called LDN East which has a capacity of 1,000 people and has moved from “strength to strength” since it opened over 18 months ago.

LDN Riverside had previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it was interested in investing in regeneration, creating jobs and contributing to Barking’s local economy.

However police, environmental health and various businesses operating on the site had objected to the application because they said the site was unsuitable and unsafe for a nightclub.

A CGI drawing of what the club intended to look like Credit: LDN Riverside

During a Barking and Dagenham Council licensing sub-committee meeting last week (May 18), PC Owen Dunn of the East Area Licensing Team said there were serious public safety concerns within the proposal and that comments made by the police and neighbouring businesses “cannot be ignored”.

PC Dunn told the council chamber: “The operational hours of the entire industrial site are a concern due to the fact that other businesses also have trading hours and operating vehicles until the late hours of the night, this was a contradiction which became apparent during meetings we had with the applicant’s representatives.

“They had been under the impression that the industrial site had closed from around 5pm and worked Monday to Friday and reopened at 7am and therefore [wouldn’t] affect their weekend trading hours.”

Police said the industrial site is \"fully operational\" Credit: Met Police

He went on to say: “This has been contradicted by the other businesses who state that they receive products by HGVs and even deliveries of damaged vehicles until the late hours of the night and [into] the weekend.

“Therefore this site will not be suitable to host a nightclub-style venue at all, let alone through an entire weekend without a break.”

Prior to the meeting, PC Dunn had highlighted the Met’s areas of concerns in council documents and said drunk party-goers could end up falling in wasteland ditches and because some of the area is out of sight from the general public, there is a risk that criminal activity could take place.

Back at the meeting, PC Dunn said: “I appreciate that this would be a new business that the applicant wants to see thrive as there are obvious financial gains to be achieved from this however, realistically the applicant and their representatives cannot honestly believe that this site is deemed suitable for their business goals.”

Police said customers would need to navigate themselves through these containers Credit: Met Police

A business owner working on the site then shared his concerns with the rest of the committee, and said: “The golden rule with HGV, forklifts, vans and rigid vehicles, you do not mix pedestrians and get them close – you avoid those.

“The visibility is low, you just keep the vehicles there, the driver leaves the vehicles and you don’t have people walking [near the vehicles] because they’re moving, they’re slow they’re big they’re heavy and they are very very dangerous.”

He went on to say: “We operate right into the early hours, we go up to our hubs up in the Midlands and we come back at 1am, 2am, 4am or 6am and were operating a minimum of six days, so it’s a real concern to have 2,000 nightclub-goers in a unit adjacent to ours… I do worry about them spilling out into our operational area.”

Robert Sutherland, a solicitor representing LDN Riverside later said in the meeting: “The purpose of this application is to authorise an events space and part of that events space would involve [running] all night music events.

“They may not be or may be types of events people present in this room would attend, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the people that are able to attend, whatever their music tastes or whatever their interests, that they are being treated in a safe manner and that they are having a good time.”

A representative from LDN Riverside’s health and safety team said they had carried out a “robust” 50-page risk assessment of the site, and added: “Whenever you turn up to an event at the pre-stages [which is] where we are now, an  event space always looks hazardous, it’s very difficult for anyone to picture what a venue is going to look like when it#s up and running and when all the controls are in place.”

Mr Sutherland said Fabric was an example of a music and events space that operated safely in an area “where large lorries have also been used” and later said in his closing statement: “I would commend this application to you.

“The operators are not in this for the short-term, it’s a substantial investment into this area.. that’s because they believe they can add to the borough.”

PC Dunn said in his closing statement: “We have plenty of different authority teams and current working companies from the borough who all have concerns with this application a nd the idea for the venue.

“This highlights hat there’s nothing personal from a police point of view against the company, otherwise I would have highlighted that in our concerns… it just shows that everyone who has provided a representation has a genuine concern that this site is not suitable.”

After deliberating in private for over 30 minutes, the council’s licensing sub-committee returned to the chamber and gave their decision, which rejected the plans.

The committee wasn’t satisfied with how the safety of the public and nearby businesses would be protected and observed, having based their decision on public safety and crime and disorder concerns that were raised by objectors.

LDN Riverside has the chance to appeal the decision to the magistrates court if it wants to.