The Metropolitan police service (MPS) has told Lambeth council that it has “lost confidence” in the group running Brixton’s O2 Academy venue.
Two people, Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson, died as a result of a crush at the venue on 15 December when about 1,000 people attempting to enter the venue stampeded through broken doors.
In an online application to the council dated 17 April, PC Jinelle Caldinez said: “The MPS has lost confidence in the premises licence holder”.
It said that “regrettably” variations to licensing conditions suggested by the licence holder, Academy Music Group (AMG), had “not been successful in identifying the remedial measures which need to be in place before the Academy can safely re-open”.
No details of the Met’s objections are included in the online form, neither were they available at the time of writing on the council’s online licensing application database.
It was the Met that suggested a three-month suspension of the licence at a meeting on 16 January this year. The suspension would have ended on 17 April.
This was on condition that AMG “must address the steps that are required to promote the licensing objectives” in light of the fatal incident at the premises in December.
A spokesperson for AMG, which has been the licence holder since April 2010, said it had “co-operated fully” with the Met and Lambeth council since the tragedy.
It said it had presented detailed proposals that it believed would enable the venue to reopen safely and had been waiting for feedback on them for several weeks. AMG said it was looking forward “to hearing from the police as soon as possible in constructive terms”.
In a statement yesterday (24 April) the Met said it would seek a “revocation” of the venue’s licence at a meeting of Lambeth council’s licensing committee.
A Lambeth council spokesperson said AMG’s proposals would be considered by its licensing sub-committee on a date to be confirmed.
The council spokesperson said an application to review the Academy’s licence was submitted by the Met on 14 April and “is now subject to a statutory consultation period”.
This means there are two outstanding applications in relation to the venue, AMG’s licence variations plan and the Met’s licence review application. The council spokesperson said both would be considered “in due course”.
Since 2017, the Academy had staged more than 650 shows attracting a total audience of nearly 2.4m.
AMG says it has achieved significant growth in music tourism to Brixton and generated capital investment both locally and nationally.
About 40% of the money spent in Brixton takes place in transactions after 6pm and the Academy has a central role in this night time economy. A permanent revocation of its licence would be a major blow for the whole economy of the area.
BBC Radio’s File On 4 has quoted a door guard who had worked at the Academy saying that some other security staff employed by the agency used there would take cash to allow in people without tickets.
“There were people taking money. Some staff made £1,000 cash,” he said.
“Our company knew what was going on and they knew the people who were doing it and they did nothing about it.”
