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Fabric’s lawyers welcome ruling over club venue’s security measures

By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 15 December 2015

The legal representatives of London nightclub Fabric have issued a lengthy statement summarising their successful efforts to stop Islington council forcing strict new security restrictions on the venue.

As previously reported, late last year long-standing clubbing set-up Fabric faced the very real threat of losing its licence after the local authority decided to review its operations in response to police concerns about drug-related incidents there.

Fabric insisted that it had a zero tolerance approach to drugs, that it had long enjoyed a good working relationship with local police, and that its existing security measures were more than adequate. Drugs are, of course, part of clubbing culture, and occasional tragic incidents are likely to occur, but Fabric insisted that it employed best practice measures to ensure risks are absolutely minimised.

Nevertheless, with licence withdrawal on the agenda, the venue reluctantly accepted a number of strict new security measures ordered by the council, albeit while stating almost immediately that it intended to appeal the local authority’s rulings on the matter. The two big measures Fabric was left to both test and fight were the use of sniffer dogs and ID scanning on the door.

The venue’s appeal was led by Paddy Whur of law firm Woods Whur, with representation in court from Gerald Gouriet QC, while Professor Fiona Measham, a specialist on the social impact of drug use, and Robert Humphreys, who chairs proof-of-age scheme PASS, were among those who provided expert evidence.

In a post on his company’s website, Whur writes that district judge Gillian Allison “allowed our appeal in full. In relation to the drugs dog she said, on the evidence she had heard, Islington were wrong to impose the condition as it would not promote the licensing objectives. The judge went further and found that the use of a drugs dog could undermine the licensing objectives in a number of unintended ways, including causing drugs to remain in circulation that would otherwise have been confiscated under Fabric’s thorough search procedures”.

On the ID scanning scheme, “the judge said that there was no evidence that the premises had issues with underage entry or sales [and] that to deploy [such a scheme] at Fabric would adversely affect the length of the queue, with possible public order consequences; and that it would create problems for the significant number of non-UK customers who would not necessarily carry photo ID”.

Also, “that Fabric had no issues with violent crime and disorder, which made ID scan a more understandable control measure at other premises. She also noted that the ID scan system Fabric had trialled for seven weeks had not been interrogated once by the police, and that in sixteen years of operation there had only been one incident at the premises where ID Scan might have been of some use in the prevention of crime – although she added that, on the facts, she doubted it would”.

Whur concludes: “Gerald and I have spent the last year wrestling with the issues surrounding this case, and in particular the fact that young people have lost their lives after taking drugs on the way to, or in the venue. [But] after hearing Gerald’s submissions the judge found that the operator was a beacon of best practice, and she urged Fabric to continue its diligence in what is a difficult environment for all who work in the nighttime economy – where so many young people seem prepared, regrettably, to put their lives at risk by taking unlawful drugs”.

Also responding to last week’s ruling on its licence, the venue itself said in a statement: “Everyone at Fabric is delighted with the outcome and are very much looking forward to resuming our positive, long-standing and solid relationships with both Islington Council’s licensing department and the borough’s police to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for our club-goers and local residents”.

Club operators across London and beyond will likely be pleased with last week’s ruling, and that Fabric had the resources and will to fight the case. Some in the so called nighttime economy think that some councils need to rethink the way they deal with club licensing, especially when it comes to issues around drugs.

One concern expressed by venues which operate best practice anti-drug schemes is that such good practices, and the required close working relationship with police, means that occasional incidents that require law enforcement or paramedic assistance are more obvious to authorities than at venues that operate a slacker system, which can ironically make them targets when councils look to crack down.

Some have expressed fears that clubs in Glasgow and elsewhere in Scotland are less likely to collaborate with police on drugs issues since licensing problems forced The Arches – another venue with seemingly good security practices and anti-drug policies – out of business. No one benefits from that. So, say club owners, rather than penalising the good clubs for not having a 100% success rate, councils should seek to expand their practices to less pro-active venues.