Police object to plans for 'Europe's biggest pub' on Yorkshire street

Hellfire Entertainment Ltd (HEL) is the company behind the ambitious scheme to bring the mammoth establishment to Huddersfield’s town centre. The pub would be located across several buildings on and around Zetland Street including the Colosseum, Showtime and the most recently acquired Club House.

Last May, an application was submitted to Kirklees Council for the Club House that sits next to the Showtime bar – both at 24 Zetland Street. HEL seeks permission to repurpose the vacant, listed building that is currently designated for use as a residential dwelling.

The applicant also wants to build a pergola in part of the garden area and install new external fire doors and double glazing to the rear of the premises. The area would also feature a cigar lounge, Cuban bar and hot tubs.

Local historian Chris Marsden discovered that the Club House was once used by actors and stagehands as a place of residence when Showtime and the Colosseum were operating as a theatre. Though it is said that no one of note stayed there.

However, the Club House has hit a number of bumps in the road. Firstly, the council has not considered the planning application yet, despite being submitted a year ago.

On top of this, WYP has submitted an objection to the plans. Designing Out Crime officers have recommended that the Club House plans are rejected by the council, citing laws and policies as reasons why.

One act – the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 – used by the police in their objection requires authorities to do as much as they possibly can to prevent crime, disorder, and abuse of drink and drugs. The police say their advice to refuse the application is “following recent current Crime trends in the area concerned.”

However, the applicant has attempted to mitigate such concerns. For example, a pergola has been designed to go over the top of the hot tubs to protect users from “a rather unpleasant practice” that sees some Showtime guests throwing things over the fence separating the main beer garden from the hot tub area.

Ian Snowball of HEL explained: “The reply from the police is rather a strange one to me. Ordinarily, we have a very strong relationship with the Huddersfield police force, they are always there for us and it is clear that whenever the police do have a problem or a concern about us, it always gets pushed up the chain of command and a very fair and well thought-out decision comes back to us.

“However, I have to admit that I had never heard of Planning Out Crime and its link to planning applications, so this came out of the blue for me. The problem I have with the reply from Planning Out Crime is that the entirety of the plans we have put together actually do in fact revolve around Planning Out Crime.

“We have designed the most female-friendly safe zone imaginable and created other safe zones around the entirety of the design. There is restricted access to every single area, passable only by access being granted by staff, lots of new fire exits, open areas, face recognition CCTV, new lighting and only a select few can gain access to the new house, etc etc.

“This probably puts it somewhere near the top in regard to being female-friendly and this safety and security trickles down to the rest of the guests, who are kept away from the main Showtime bar. So how the Police have determined that by opening this new House it will place the guests in Showtime in some kind of increased danger escapes me.

“We have not had a final decision yet and there is also no date set for the Councillors meeting yet, so we will have to wait and see, it might not be as bad as it looks at the moment.

“Having put so much time and money into the plans for the new house and being stuck in this awful recession, we are desperate to get this completed and give our guests something new to look forward to and to experience first hand. However, as usual, what is supposed to be completed by Kirklees Council within eight weeks is dragging out to be more than one year now.

“You would have thought that Kirklees Council would empathise with our plight and that of the Town Centre hospitality sector and realise that if they cut people like us free instead of placing a rock on our backs we can help out and do our little bit towards regenerating the Town Centre viability.”