Hours cut at New Navigation pub after fights and attacks 'every other week'
A troubled pub which has been plagued by violence will now have to shut before midnight every night after action was taken by fed-up police.
Officers were being sent to the New Navigation in Oldbury 'every other week' to break up fights and deal with other disorder which often spilled out into the street, West Midlands Police chiefs said.
Ambulances had also been called to the pub in Titford Road 14 times during the last year. A police officer was also assaulted while trying to deal with antisocial behaviour.
The force's licensing chief Mick Boyd told a hearing at Sandwell Council that the New Navigation had become more like a nightclub with people drinking into the early hours. A knife which had been seized outside the venue was brought into the licensing hearing inside an evidence bag.
A new manager has been brought in to run the pub while it will have to close at 11.30pm every night. CCTV will also be in operation inside and outside the pub as well as in the beer garden.
Police will have to be notified about any events happening at the pub 10 working days beforehand. Chiefs hope the measures will put a stop to the trouble which has become associated with the venue.
Mr Boyd told the council's licensing panel: "The New Navigation has been the focal point of a number of incidents of crime and disorder over the last 12 months. Police have investigated assaults inside and outside the premises.
"This culminated with a police officer being assaulted while trying to make an arrest following antisocial behaviour at the premises.
"In a nutshell this premises has been associated with crime and disorder mainly in the early hours of the morning. As a result, police have been called nearly every other week in the past 12 months."
"The pub is at the end of the street and is there for the community. But it has stopped being a community pub and has become a nightclub. It does little business during the week and then just gets hammered at the weekend when people are in there late at night.
Sam Skinner, a barrister representing the pub's owners Westbourne Leisure, said the company the changes would put a stop to the trouble.
He said: "It is one of 53 pubs the company runs and the new DPS (designated premises supervisor) being brought in has much experience in very tough areas, and she is coming in to turn it back into a community pub."
The licensing panel agreed to the recommendation that the pub shut at 11.30pm.
