A proposed nightclub in Prince of Wales Road has been refused a licence, with the person seeking it having forgotten to attend the meeting where he could have tried to convince councillors to grant it.
Derby-based applicant Chang Hai Wang, had asked Norwich City Council for a licence covering the Vanity nightlcub at 16, Prince of Wales Road.
He wanted to run the basement and ground floor as a club on Fridays, Saturdays and Bank Holidays. The ground floor would have been a pub from Monday to Sunday, with the first and second floors serving as private function rooms.
He was seeking permission to serve alcohol from 12pm until 3am each day and said all staff would be trained to deal with anti-social behaviour and to search for weapons and drugs on arrival.
But, Norfolk police had raised concerns about the application and, at a meeting of the city council's licensing committee today, Mr Wang did not attend.
Officers said they had called him to check he was attending. They said he told them he had forgotten about the meeting and committee members chose to decide on the application despite his absence.
Michelle Bartram, Norfolk police's licensing officer, told the committee she had previously met the applicant, but came away unsure of what his plans for the venue were.
She said: 'We were very concerned because there was no clear direction or information for us to assess the type of venue it was going to be. To be honest, it was the strangest meeting. My colleague who was with me said they had never had a meeting like that before where we were just no clearer coming out of it.'
She said the application had failed to address issues such as CCTV and staff training.
The committee unanimously refused to grant a licence, saying the application failed to meet licensing objectives and had not complied with policy around the cumulative impact policy, which means applicants have to show new venues would not have a negative impact on the area.
Ben Price, Green city councillor for Thorpe Hamlet, had objected to the application. After the decision, he said: 'It was absolutely the right decision and a victory for common sense. It shows the robustness of the council's licensing policy.'
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