Barneys piano bar in Preston City Centre is facing a licensing review following a series of violent and assault incidents reported to Lancashire Constabulary.

The review application details a number of alleged incidents reported to the police between July 2021 and August 2022 at the Church Street venue.

The reports relate to alleged incidents of sexual assaults, theft, non-compliance with Covid restrictions, drink spiking, assaults, public order, offensive weapons on the premises and non-compliance with licensing conditions.

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The report states PC Connelly to meet up with Anthony Newman, owner of Barneys, after a build-up of stead flow violent incidents, was on Saturday 30 July, 2022, which prompted a review.

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Lancashire Constabulary received a 999 call from a lone member of staff reporting that a male had pulled a knife out inside the premises.

PC Stephen Connolly, said in his report: “She had seen blood, that people were kicking off inside the pub.

“There had been a disturbance in the pool room, which was not supervised during the incident resulting in one male picking up a pool ball and cue and the other taking a knife from his pocket and lunge at the other causing injury to his mouth and face.

“The male with the knife was physically restrained by 5-10 other customers before being released and escorted out of the premises.”

The male was located and arrested by officers, and a knife was recovered. The incident is still under investigation.

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The report states that Anthony Newman has made positive steps to tackle with some of the issues.

This includes requesting changing door supervision providers and introducing a stronger dress code to tackle problematic customers and have voluntary begun using a knife wand upon entry.

Since applying for the review, Mr Newman has looked to training a further two members of staff to eventually apply for a personal license holder, bringing the total number of staff with personal licenses to four along with training them to access CCTV to review footage following incidents

At the present time, Lancashire Constabulary feel that suspension or revocation of the premises license is not necessary as ‘Newman has clearly undertaken work to address the issues at Barneys.’

A meeting will be held before Preston City Council’s Licensing Sub-Committee, on Monday 24 October, to discuss this matter.

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