Venue facing grilling over ‘significant concerns’ about events

Astoria in Skinner Street, Wolverhampton, will have its licence reviewed by City of Wolverhampton Council at the request of West Midlands Police over concerns about the management of events at the venue. 

The force accused the 700-capacity venue of putting the public at risk after ignoring the conditions of its licence in allowing events to go ahead without first notifying the police.

It said several events held at Astoria had resulted in trouble and an “urgent” response from officers.

West Midlands Fire Service has also raised concerns about the city centre venue saying its owners had “failed on numerous occasions to adequately promote fire safety.”

A licensing hearing will be held in Wolverhampton on December 17 where the venue could have its licence suspended or revoked completely. 

City of Wolverhampton Council also accused licence holder Glen Tarplee and supervisor Kirsty Allen of “total disregard” for the conditions of their licence after failing to tell police about events they were planning to hold despite knowing it was a requirement. The council and police also said requests to the pair for CCTV footage had not been dealt with quickly.

Police said there had been “concerns over the last few months” after requests for incident logbooks and further information needed for risk-assessments  resulted in a “slow and delayed response.”

“This lack of responsibility displayed by the [venue] to upholding the conditions on their licence has a detrimental effect on the public of Wolverhampton, putting the licensing objective of prevention of crime and disorder into jeopardy,” the police’s licensing officer said.

West Midlands Police added: “The premises have been advertising and holding events at the location and failing to inform [us] of these events. There is a specific condition that was placed upon the licence to ensure that this was complied with. Both the licence holder and designed premises supervisor are fully aware of the existence of this condition and the requirement for compliance.

“It is important for West Midlands Police to be made aware of all events, in order for the event to be risk assessed, then to communicate any risks and ensure measures are implemented to mitigate those risks with the premises. 

“Some of these events that West Midlands Police were not notified about resulted in disorder and the requirement for urgent additional police resources, including officers equipped with tasers.”

City of Wolverhampton Council’s licensing department agreed with West Midlands Police saying the venue had shown “total disregard” for the conditions in its licence and was putting the public at risk. Also in agreement, a city public health officer added: “This lack of cooperation and accountability by both the designated premises supervisor and the premises licence holder undermines the licensing objective of preventing crime and disorder, putting the safety and wellbeing of the public in Wolverhampton at risk.”

In a report published ahead of December 17’s meeting, West Midlands Fire Service said the licence holder Glen Tarplee had signed an agreement with the fire service in 2023 to ensure work was carried out before the new venue opened. 

Despite reminders, the venue opened without the approval of the fire service that the necessary work had been carried out. 

The fire service said the venue’s fire alarms had not been serviced as agreed, with it claiming an engineer was told to only service part of the system, which meant fires could have broken out in undetected parts of the 700-capacity venue. The engineer had “not been invited back and had not been paid,” the fire service added. It “finally” received an assessment of the venue’s capacity but was concerned it had not been carried out properly.

The venue was also supposed to have shown its capacity risk assessment to a professional before they were signed off but it was later confirmed to have not happened – with the fire service believing this move prevented the venue’s capacity from being reduced. 

“The fire risk assessor had not attended the site but had based his calculations upon measurement and plans supplied by the operator and had assumed all other fire safety matters were compliant – which they were not.”

WMFS said it had also recently received a complaint that Astoria’s fire alarm system had “multiple faults” and fire exits were signed as ‘out of order’.

The fire service also said building regulations involving the conversion of the bingo hall into a banqueting suite in 2008 were never signed off with 12 re-submissions put forward before finally being rejected in August 2008. “As the premises have never been deemed suitable under the building regulations for its current use, there may be other safety matters that have not been suitably addressed,” the fire service said.