by John Harrington
Nightclub company Ultimate Leisure has poured scorn on a police claim that the £800-a-week paid-for-policing scheme it has been forced to accept at its Coyote Wild bar in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, has led to a sharp fall in disorder aroundthe venue.
Ultimate chief executive Bob Senior argued that there were few problems at the club which police closed for 24 hours in January after reports of disorder in the first place.
His remarks come as police and councillors are due to meet other licensees in Mansfield to discuss the possibility of more venues stumping up cash for extra officers.
Police said reports of assaults at or near Coyote Wild fell from nine to two in a month, since the extra police arrived to patrol outside the club in February.
Ultimate took the decision to pay for the officers, who patrol on Fridays and Saturdays between 10pm and 2am, after the venue was given a 24-hour closure order following a number of reports of disorder there.
Some observers believe that Ultimate's move, which is set to cost the company £45,000 a year, is aimed at keeping the police on-side.
Addressing the police's view that the paid-for-policing scheme had cut crime, Senior said: "We are disappointed that the Nottinghamshire Police have tried to indicate that they have solved a problem that we don't accept existed.
"I'm very confident with the operation [at the club] before the police enacted the closure order, as I am afterwards."
Nottinghamshire Police is notorious for its hard-line approach to pubs.
Earlier this year the force wrote to magistrates asking them to revoke the licences of two pubs that were caught serving under-18s, and Notting-hamshire Police Chief Constable Steve Green has frequently spoken out against the trade.