No Saints plan for Cardiff rejected
A plan by No Saints, the new company run by former Luminar boss Stephen Thomas, to spend £500,000 on opening a burlesque club in the centre of Cardiff has been turned down.
No Saints wanted to open The Greene Room club on St Mary Street at the site of the former Life nightclub.
The Greene Room is a prohibition-style 300-seater club offering comedy, dance, bands and other acts in a cabaret-style setting until 2.30am, councillors heard.
But Cardiff council cited the "saturation zone" — the amount of existing licensed properties in the area — as the reason for refusing a licence.
The Greene Room's operations manager Lucy Herlihy told Wales Online: "We're obviously very disappointed. It's been turned down because of the saturation zone in Cardiff — that end of St. Mary Street will be unusable for the near future.
"I would think the decision will be appealed because it's something different for Cardiff."
Crime ridden
South Wales Police Sergeant Scott Lloyd reminded the licensing sub-committee the former Life club was in the most alcohol-related crime ridden street in Wales.
The city council's saturation zone policy meant no further booze licences could be issued unless the applicants could guarantee that it would not add to crime levels — even by a single bag snatch, he argued.
The policy remained as necessary today as it was when first agreed three years ago, the officer said.
After the application was rejected, Ms Herlihy said: "This is a different concept — bringing change to the high street, moving away from vertical drinking and dancing.
"We're concentrating on the people who don't want to stand at a crowded bar and have beer spilled on them, but be entertained.
"Things won't change until something is done to make that change."
