Luminar club proposes early closure on discount nights
A Luminar club in Swindon has proposed closing earlier on nights where it runs drinks promotions, after police called for a licence review.
Liquid & Envy currently has a licence to open until 6am, although in reality most nights it closes at around 3am.
Police called for a review after revealing that it gets five times as many reports of drunken behaviour and disorder on Thursday nights — the club's student night — than on Fridays and Saturdays.
The average price of a drink on Fridays and Saturdays is £4.10 but drops to £1.50 on Thursdays. The club has previously run promotions such as buy one drink, get two free and drinks for 98p.
Luminar has offered to add a condition to its licence that it would close the Envy part at 2.15am and the Liquid part at 2.40am on nights when it cuts the price of the majority of its drinks with no access from one to the other after the closing time of Envy.
However, the council has said it would prefer those closing times to be 1.30am for Envy and 2am for Liquid.
"The club is very well managed, has a good door team in place and has a very effective underage exclusion policy — in fact it won the Best Bar None award last year," said council licensing officer Lionel Starling.
"So the problems on Thursdays were contradictory to the running of the club. The core element of difference is the discounted alcohol on those nights.
"There are no real concerns on a Friday or Saturday night."
However, Luminar does run a night called "Skint" every Friday, which also offers drinks for £1.50 including Stella Artois 4%, Smirnoff Ice and Becks, while selected spirits are £2. Customers can also buy andy three Bud, Stella 5% or WKD Blue for £6.
The council is now in continued discussions with Luminar and its solicitors Poppleston Allen about how to word such a condition. "We want to come to a common sense agreement," said Starling.
Luminar has also proposed adding a condition for one of its doostaff to have to wear a head camera — something it already does.
