2am licence with karaoke is applied for by bingo hall

A bingo hall in Oldbury would open until the early hours of the morning, under plans to change the conditions of its licence and allow it to stage live music and karaoke events.

Mecca Bingo in Halesowen Road can currently only open between 10am and 11pm. However, bosses have now submitted an application to Sandwell Council to extend the opening by three hours until 2am.

The club says the extended opening hours would allow it to hold monthly live events and let members enjoy other games machines for longer.

In a supporting letter submitted along with the planning application, Graham Murdoch of planning agents Murdoch Associates, states: "At the moment the club can remain open until 11pm on any day of the week.

"Their current main bingo sessions finish between 9.30pm and 10pm each evening but a proportion of members will stay to play the various amusement machines or other ancillary gaming and have some refreshments up to the midnight closing.

"As a result of the success of the introduction of a broader and later bingo offer at a number of clubs, Mecca Bingo are in the process of developing this further and introducing it into a number of their clubs.

"This involves staging monthly live events, such as talent acts, hypnotists or karaoke alongside newly-developed bingo games such as Binglo and rock 'n' roll bingo."

Mr Murdoch said the club would offer an enhanced range of food and drink and the anticipated levels of customers of the monthly events would be much lower than the main bingo sessions and interval games that are currently held.

The bingo was granted a casino licence more than six years ago as Grosvenor had planned to expand the site.

But the firm later applied to transfer permission to Birchley Island after hold-ups to the scheme.