A POPULAR bar faces closure after the council revoked its licence as police say they have “never seen such a consistently poorly run premises”.

Oxygen was sent before Brighton and Hove City Council's licensing committee yesterday after Sussex Police said the bar was rife with violent assaults, excessive drunkenness, underage drink and “unacceptable drinks promotions”.

The Argus previously reported a young woman was raped after leaving the venue in December.

On other occasions a glass attack left a victim needing stitches and a man slammed his girlfriend's head into a table.

In the recent incidents punters were often so drunk they could not remember what had happened to them and CCTV equipment did not work properly.

The bar also came under fire in the past for challenging customers to drink a potentially lethal platter of 42 shots - all with sexually aggressive names.

Originally the West Street premises faced just a suspension of the licence and a reduction in hours.

However police discovered Oxygen's Facebook page was still “encouraging irresponsible drinking” on the day before the hearing and police decided to bid for the revocation.

Jean Irving, the force's head of licensing, told the committee she made a mistake by not asking for the revocation of the licence as it was clear the premises were not taking the matter seriously.

The premises licence had previously been reviewed in 2009 after three test purchases where children were sold alcohol on each occasion.

There were also concerns over vertical drinking as the premises has a licence for a café/bar but food had not been seen by officers.

The management from Oxygen said they were working to change the premises to adhere to the licence conditions and told the committee a reduction of hours or a suspension meant the premises would probably go out of business.

The licensing committee said it had no confidence in the management of the premises to be able to adhere to conditions following a series of serious incidents, repeated sales of alcohol to minors and the irresponsible drinks promotions within the premises.

Sergeant Ben Hearth, from Brighton and Hove licensing team, said: "I had met with the premises management on a number of occasions in an attempt to bring up their standards but our warnings and interventions were not heeded.

"The committee's decision reinforces our determination to address issues with any premises which fail to promote the licensing objectives and show a duty of care to their patrons."

Oxygen has 21 days to appeal against the decision and can remain open during that period.

QUOTE

"The behaviour of the premises licence holder has been unacceptable and people have been harmed by his failure to take their obligations seriously.

"I have been involved in licensing for 13 years and during that time I have never seen such a consistently poorly run premises, whose focus seems only to make as much money as possible by selling as much alcohol as possible, regardless of the consequences and the harm caused." - Jean Irving, head of licensing at Sussex Police