A "fantastic opportunity" or "a major cause for concern"? Helen Gabriel examines the arguments for and against the application for York's first superclub.

IT'S been welcomed by late-night revellers and shunned by police.

But the on-going battle to open a multi-million pound, 1,750-capacity superclub at Nexus, in George Hudson Street, York, is set to continue with a formal appeal.

City of York Council licensing chiefs said the application to expand the venue failed to address police concerns that it would "generate additional crime and disorder and public nuisance".

The scheme was opposed by local councillors, police and rival club operators.

But those concerns have been refuted by Nexus chief Peter Brownsword, who claims the club would not bring any extra people into the area and would in fact reduce crime and disorder.

Mr Brownsword, head of special projects for McMillan York, which operates Nexus and bpm, said: "We believe it will reduce crime and disorder, and we believe all the evidence is in our favour and not the police's at this point.

"You only have to go out on a Saturday night, between 11pm and 1am, and walk around the Gallery, Toffs and Nexus to know that there is a substantial need for further demand to be met.

"That demand not being met is the cause of some of the crime and disorder, and we could reduce that by providing for the demand.

"The police figures show that the greatest disorder is between 11pm and 1am, which is the time that most people are looking to go into a nightclub and can't because the demand is too high. Those people are either standing in a queue for too long or walking about in the street, not knowing what to do with themselves.

"That's when there is the potential for crime and disorder.

"But once people go into a nightclub, they stay there."

He said figures showed that a nightclub with a capacity of 800 would get about 1,000 customers in total throughout the course of a night, but Nexus, which has the capacity for 600, gets 2,300 in total on an average Saturday.

He said: "The main aim of our application is to provide somewhere that people go to and stay at."

Plans include a 200-person capacity "departure lounge" to prevent crowding on the street, more pay desks to reduce queuing and a food outlet to reduce takeaway visits.

The club would also spend £15,000 to subsidise five late-night bus routes and would provide taxi and street marshals to keep order outside the club.

But Chief Inspector Andy Hirst, North Yorkshire Police's central area community safety chief, slammed Nexus's licensing application to expand into the former Presto supermarket site last month.

In a letter to City of York Council licensing chiefs, Chief Insp Hirst argued that the application should be refused.

He wrote: "The police are concerned that this development will attract even more people to an area which already has the highest concentration of people in the city at night time, and thereby there is a likelihood that this in turn will lead to an increase in crime and disorder.

"It would be reasonable to expect that, in creating a new enlarged venue, many more people would be congregating in this area and this will adversely impact on the area, beyond the control of the applicants, leading to an increase in crime and disorder incidents and nuisance problems. Managing additional numbers of people in the area would ultimately fall upon the police, and this would mean bringing additional officers into the city centre in the early hours of the morning.

"This could only be done by redeploying officers from elsewhere across the city, to the detriment of police cover in the rest of York.

"Additionally, such large numbers leaving the nightclub between 3am and 4am would severely stretch police resources across the city, at a time when many officers are coming to the end of their shift, potentially leaving their colleagues vulnerable."

He said that the police had no criticism over the way Nexus was currently run, and conceded the current application was "well thought through".

But he concluded: "The mere fact that there is the potential for an additional 1,150 revellers in the cumulative impact zone, up to 4am and beyond, gives the police a major cause for concern."


Inspector Richard Crinnion, of North Yorkshire Police, said: "If this licence is approved, it will lead to a large increase in capacity and concentration within the area, and the likelihood is that this will lead to an increase in crime and disorder. If this does happen, then it will mean we will have to manage and change our resources in order to keep up with that increased demand."

Richard Arnot, representing Luminar, the firm which owns The Gallery and Toffs nightclubs, said the scheme could only add to alcohol-fuelled disorder in the area. He said: "I do not believe, by any stretch of the imagination, this will alleviate problems. You will have more people and more problems."

Micklegate ward councillor David Evans said residents in the area were already subjected to "industrial levels" of noise and said the plan could only add to the problem. He said: "There is a real concern that this huge increase will bring yet more trouble into the area. We do not want York to develop a reputation as an unsavoury destination."