A TEMPORARY plan to change a Newport nightclub’s licensing hours has been made permanent following a five-hour hearing.

Gwent Police had applied for a review of The Courtyard’s licence following a serious incident outside the venue on April 29, which saw several people hospitalised.

The force sought the reduction of hours for the sale of alcohol from 5am on Saturdays to 3am, and from 4am on Sundays and weekdays to 3am.

Documents linked to the hearing also revealed that the police dealt with 47 incidents linked to The Courtyard between October 2017 and April this year.

But Newport City Council’s licensing committee agreed for the hours proposed by Gwent Police to be extended to 4.30am on Saturdays and 3.30am for Sundays and weekdays.

Such a move had been approved by the committee on an interim basis on May 4, following a closed meeting with the venue’s owner Iftekhar Harris.

The Courtyard must also have six door staff at the premises on Friday and Saturday with no less than five door staff at the front door on Saturdays, it was said.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Harris said that many of the incidents linked with The Courtyard were “tenuous” and described the review as “ridiculous”.

“Incidents started elsewhere but ended up on Cambrian Road but the police didn’t mention any other club on the street but ours,” he said.

“The Courtyard has become a landmark, a victim of its own success.

“How does ejecting someone from the club, fulfilling our licensing objectives, lead to a review? These crimes have been used against us, it’s just not on.”

The full review hearing on Thursday began as a public meeting before the press and the public were excluded due to discussions of a sensitive nature.

But documents seen by the Argus beforehand outlined Gwent Police’s case for the review, which stems from the “serious outbreak of disorder” on April 29.

In the application, Superintendent Ian Roberts said: “In reviewing the incident in the early hours of April 29 and having had sight of the history of incidents during the last six months, I am of the opinion that this premises is associated with serious incidents of crime and disorder.”

The incidents recorded during the sixth-month period include allegations of assault, theft and public order offences.

Of the 47 incidents recorded, 27 happened after 3am when “the vast majority of licensed premises in the city centre have closed”, a report said.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, writing in support of Gwent Police, described The Courtyard as the “top repeat location” for assault-related injury A&E admissions, not only for Newport but the whole of Gwent.

In 2017, 99 registrations for ‘assault-related injury at the Royal Gwent Hospital’s A&E department mentioned the club at book-in.

ABUHB also estimated that the costs of registering the assault-related injuries linked to The Courtyard cost around £14,000 last year.

When the meeting was re-opened to the public, the council’s solicitor Simon Cadenhead said the majority decision was “hard-fought” but said the police’s application “had not been fully made out”.

Both parties have the right to appeal and take the review to the magistrate’s court, a decision not ruled out by Supt Roberts after the meeting.

“We’ll go away and consider it but we respect the decision of the council and will continue to work with them and licensees going forward,” he said.

“It’s about keeping the balance of the rights of the traders and the rights of the public which can be made difficult by crime and disorder.

Supt Roberts described the Cambrian Road incident as a “trigger” for the review, which saw the force’s city centre team look into the history of incidents of crime and disorder in the night-time economy relating to The Courtyard.