Gangland pub is shut for good

A crime-ridden "gangster" pub that brought terror to a Wolverhampton community has been shut for good in a unprecedented move by city licensing chiefs.

See also: Man badly hurt in pub shooting

The decision to close down the notorious Waggon and Horses in Cannock Road was made because of a threat to public safety. It is the first time a pub in the West Midlands has been permanently shut by a local authority.

The city's licensing sub-committee yesterday ruled the owners, Wiltshire-based Pubfolio, had shown a "complete inability" to prevent crime and disorder at the venue, which has been the scene of recent shootings and serious anti-social behaviour.

A police dossier documenting the pub's troubled past includes:

* Gun crime and shootings, including a woman reporting a firearm was held to her head inside.

* Riots, including up to 30 yobs trying to force entry.

* Knives, live ammunition, hard-core drugs and a firearm found outside.

* Cannabis being smoked by customers, dismissed by management as "Jamaican culture".

Residents who campaigned tirelessly to get the pub closed were today overjoyed by the decision. They gave an impassioned testimony to the committee which told how they were living in fear of the criminal goings-on at the pub. They said it was like "living next to a war zone".

They claimed gunmen and drug dealers had "taken over" the premises, holding noisy all-night parties and "ghettoising" the community and that successive managers had failed to control their behaviour.

Police also warned someone would be killed unless it was shut down.

Sub-committee chairman Councillor Carl Husted said afterwards there had been only four or five such closures nationally. He said: "It is legislation that can only used be used sparingly in the right circumstances – and these were absolutely the right circumstances.

"Paramount was the threat to public safety, not only to the people who use the pub but also the residents who live nearby and the police who are called to deal with incidents there."

Pubfolio now has 21 days to appeal but under new laws, if an objection is lodged, the pub will remain closed until the date of the hearing.

Simon Bayliss, regional manager for Pubfolio, said afterwards he was disappointed with the ruling.

Police had applied for a three-month shutdown which they say would have enabled them to exercise more control over the pub's management and owners.

Tom Gee, chairman of the Spring Valley Residents and Tenants Association, which had lodged a 278-name petition calling for the pub's permanent closure, said it was a "superb" decision by the committee.

"It's fantastic," he said. "We thought a three-month shutdown was no good – the owners would never find a manager strong enough to keep away the criminal element.

"Thankfully the committee saw sense and we will be able to sleep a bit more peacefully in our beds now."