A NEWPORT nightclub has been refused a temporary licence for the Easter weekend after it was revealed its company had been removed from the register by Companies House.

The Birdcage in Market Street, Newport, had applied for a temporary licence to enable the sale of alcohol and regulated entertainment from 9pm to 5am from Friday, April 18, to Monday, April 21, but has been refused by Newport City council.

The decision notice from the licensing sub-committee on April 10 states: “Having heard from the applicant Mr Fletcher and listened to the objections of Gwent Police, together with CCTV footage of Market Street, the sub-committee decided to refuse the applications for a temporary event notice.”

Gwent Police said objections were made as it was not suitable for a city centre nightclub to be run under a temporary event notice.

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said: “Temporary event notices are not as robust as a full licence, and are used for small-scale one-off events or where a premises licence does not meet the needs of a particular function.

“In this case, conditions could not be imposed that would have ensured the crime and disorder objective of the Licensing Act would have been met.”

The premises currently has no authorisation for any licensable activities as its premises licence became dissolved.

A report by the senior licensing officer at Newport City Council revealed the club had lost its premises licence on January 21, 2014, when The Birdcage Newport Ltd was dissolved and removed from the list of public limited companies by Companies House due to “a failure by the company to supply records and accounts”.

The report goes on to say that the fact the company holding the premises licence had been declared ‘dissolved’ was unknown to the licensing authority until March 24, and the designated premises supervisor John Fletcher was contacted on that date.

Last year, the venue was caught playing music without a Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) licence and was handed a fine and banning order from the High Court.

The Argus was unable to contact The Birdcage at the time of publication.