Superclub bids to reopen with tough anti-drug measures

THE management of nightclub home, the 10 million Leicester Square superclub, has offered to take stringent new anti-drugs measures in an attempt to regain its licence.

Westminster council, acting on the advice of Scotland Yard's clubs and vice unit, revoked the club's public entertainment licence on 30 March. The move came after police found evidence of open drug dealing at the club.

At a meeting of the council's licensing subcommittee today, Ron McCulloch, 47, former owner of the club, said that after discussions with police and the council, he had come up with a raft of measures that he believed would satisfy the authorities.

These included special staff with responsibility for monitoring drug dealing; a daily record of all drug-related events on the premises; new signs stating the club's drugs policy on all floors and in the lavatories; "search arches" with metal detection scanners to trace metal containers hidden on clubbers' bodies; and closure of the club's doors to admission at 1am.

The nightclub is in the hands of the receivers but it is Mr McCulloch who would become the licensee if it were to be renewed.

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