Lambeth Council publish document explaining police concerns about Brixton Academy reopening
Lambeth Council has published a document submitted last month outlining the Metropolitan Police’s concerns about reopening Brixton Academy after the crush that killed two people last December. It also explains why the London force has “lost confidence in the premises licence holder”.
The council’s licensing sub-committee initially suspended the venue’s license until mid-April, but last month it was reported that the police requested a review of venue runner AMG’s licence and is seeking a full revocation.
The police document published by Lambeth Council this week was submitted on April 14th and outlines the conversations between the parties. It also discusses the “variation application” and “event management plan” submitted by AMG in January and February as part of their bid to reopen the venue.
At the time, the police responded to the proposals, stating that they didn’t think it was “meaningful to propose remedial measures until it had been established what needed to be remedied”. AMG withdrew the application on March 14th.
A revised application and plan were then submitted by AMG later in the month. Yet the Metropolitan Police “remains of the view that ‘steps required to promote the licensing objectives in light of the serious incident at the premises on 15 Dec 2022’ cannot sensibly be determined until the cause or causes of the serious incident are better understood”.
“The [police force] has repeatedly asked AMG to assist in the identification of ‘what went wrong’ and how it is to be prevented from going wrong again,” the document states.
It continues: “In an email to AMG’s solicitors (1 Mar 2023) the [Met] wrote: ‘It would greatly assist them in evaluating the proposed amendments … to know which (if any) of the identified causes of the incident on 15 Dec are addressed and by which proposed amendments’. AMG has resisted engaging with that request”.
The force also raised other issues with the venue operator: “[The Met] are concerned that at the interim steps hearing on 22 Dec 2022, AMG denied that the structural integrity of the doors to the Brixton Academy had been raised as an issue in February 2020,” it claims.
“Documentation produced at the full review on 16 Jan 2023 confirmed that the weakness of the doors was indeed raised in February 2020. Only when those notes were produced in evidence did AMG admit that the issue had previously been discussed with them”.
“Since the hearing of the summary review on 16 Jan 2023, AMG has focused on preventing the ‘crowding around the front doors of the premises’,” it continues. In AMG’s note, “they say – ‘The tragic events occurred because a large number of individuals were able to access the front doors of the premises simultaneously and enter the lobby area in an uncontrolled manner. The aim of the variation application is to obviate the risk of that occurring'”.
The police maintain “that is far too narrow an analysis of what went wrong on the night of 15 Dec. AMG appear to regard ‘the incident’ simply as the gathering of the crowd outside the entrance to the Academy and the ‘uncontrolled manner’ of their entry. What happened inside, however, is as much a part of the incident as what happened outside, if not more so: the fatalities occurred in the foyer”.
Accordingly, the Metropolitan Police states it “has lost confidence in the premises licence holder. Regrettably, the agreed ‘variation solution’ suggested to the subcommittee at the review hearing on 16 Jan has not been successful in identifying the remedial measures which need to be in place before the Academy can safely reopen”.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.