Piano bar which hit the wrong note with Preston police in battle to save its licence

Owners of Barney's Piano Bar in Church Street will appear before councillors next week to answer concerns following 21 police call-outs in just over a year.

Officers logged a catalogue of incidents at the venue between July 2021 and August 2022 - many of them involving assaults - according to a report going before the council's licensing sub-committee on Monday. As a result Lancashire Constabulary applied for a review of the bar's licence with closure as an option. But after talks between the owners and the police, extra conditions, including replacing the designated premises supervisor (DPS), have been agreed which look set to win a reprieve.

A report to the committee says: "In this instance the submission of an application from Lancashire Constabulary to review the premises . . . has ultimately resulted in the licence holder submitting an application to vary the premises licence to incorporate additional licence conditions and change the designated premises supervisor that Lancashire Constabulary consider necessary to promote the licensing objectives. All parties to the review will be invited to attend the review hearing and the sub-committee will have the opportunity to consider whether the measures taken are adequate to promote the licensing objectives, or whether any additional measures are required."

The 13-month police incident log for Barney's, which only re-opened after refurbishment in November 2020, showed 16 cases either inside or just outside the bar involving violence - one of them a man brandishing a machete, another with a knife and a third a glass. Officers were called to three incidents where it was claimed women had been sexually assaulted - two of them in the ladies' toilets. Other cases involved theft, suspected drink spiking, criminal damage and failure to abide by Covid restrictions.

After one bad weekend police visited to talk to the DPS and were told the incidents had been down to "poor performance by one of the door staff." The doorman was new and there had been several complaints about his behaviour. On another occasion police visited the bar and found "multiple breaches of the licensing conditions" leading them to issue a closure notice.

"Since June 2021 there has been a steady flow of violent crime reported at Barney' Piano Bar," says a police statement to the sub-committee. "Lancashire Constabulary received reports of criminal activity approximately once every two weeks. There have been two separate reports of violence involving bladed weapons where officers have attended, made arrests and seized deadly weapons. It is fortunate that neither of these incidents have resulted in serious injury."

The police said that in March the DPS had changed his door security provider "which reduced the frequency of reports." He had also managed the premises during high-profile football matches and had minimised the use of glassware which had also helped. And he had taken "positive steps" to improve the situation.

The police asked for a licence review on August 2 this year. On September 9 the owners of the bar submitted an application to vary the licensing conditions, adding more measures to tighten up on security. This was granted on September 26 and the new licence will now go before the sub-committee to be ratified.