Telford banquet hall banned from hosting wedding parties after repeat Covid rule breaches
A lavish banquet hall in Telford which breached coronavirus restrictions by hosting 120 people has been banned from holding wedding parties for as long as government restrictions remain in place.
Excellency Midlands Ltd., based in Stafford Park, was served with a prohibition notice by Telford & Wrekin Council just days after it was fined £10,000 by West Mercia Police.
It comes after police officers found that up 120 people had attended a post-wedding celebration there.
In total officers have attended the venue three times since Covid-19 restrictions were brought in and found more than 30 people at a wedding there on each occasion.
As a result of the "serious and imminent threat to public health" the council has now moved to ban the venue from hosting wedding or civil partnership receptions for the duration of the pandemic.
The prohibition notice served on the business says: "Covid-19 infection rates are increasing significantly across the country and locally, and due to the nature of the operations at the premises it is highly likely that people will travel large distances from outside of the Telford area and from areas where there are ongoing local lockdown restrictions on travel.
"Due to the nature of the operation at the premises, and as operators of the premises have shown that they are unwilling to comply with the statutory requirements in respect of restrictions on gatherings, the risk of spread of infection into both the Telford and wider area is so significant that having considered the requirements of Regulation 2(1) of the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions)(England)(No.3) Regulations 2020 the only reasonable and proportionate action is to close the premises such that no wedding receptions/celebrations can be carried out."
The notice has been served on the company itself as well as directors Naweed Ahmed Chowdhary and Mohammad Jaberansari.
It means that while other venues can still host weddings subject to government restrictions (limited to 15 people at the time of writing), Excellency Midlands Ltd. cannot host them at all.
The ruling will remain in place for as long as there are any government restrictions placed on weddings.
David Sidaway, chief executive of Telford & Wrekin Council, said: “It beggars belief that people and a venue can be so reckless in the current circumstances.
“This case highlights a lack of fairness to the other businesses in the borough who are following the regulations and a lack of fairness to all those people who may come into contact with the 120 who were at the party and whose lives and livelihoods will be put at risk as a result.
“We don’t take this action lightly. Our officers have advised the company on the rules for weddings but they didn’t take on board our advice, nor the advice from the police.
“When we visit companies to talk to them about how to keep to Covid guidelines, we do it to help keep them in business. Excellency Midlands didn’t listen to us and we had no option but to serve this notice.”
In issuing the prohibition notice, Telford & Wrekin Council’s Public Protection Team had to produce reports and evidence of the Covid breaches and consult the director of public health and West Mercia Police, both of whom supported the ban.
The prohibition order can be seen at telford.gov.uk/coviddirectionnotice.
