A NIGHTCLUB where owners were accused of losing control following an ‘incredibly violent attack’ on a drinker and which planned to host a rave event headlined by DJ Assault has been stripped of its licence to sell alcohol.

Bar Lux, in Front Street, Consett, had already forced to close Durham County Hall temporarily following an urgent review of the business last month.

And Durham County Council has now followed the recommendation of police to shut down the business, after concluding its bosses had not been in full control of the premises.

Helen Johnson, the county council’s licensing team leader, said: “It looks to me like you haven’t been running the premises – the public have been running the premises.

“They have been controlling and you have lost control, that is what it looks like from the CCTV and you have been reluctant to do something about these people.”

Johnson was speaking at at meeting of the council’s statutory licensing sub-committee, following a request for a review of Lux Bar’s licence by Durham Constabulary. This was prompted by a ‘vicious and sustained attack’ in which a man was hit over the head with a bottle by two other drinkers on Sunday, July 1.

The panel was shown CCTV footage of the incident which, according to a written statement from police, included a man ‘sat a very short distance away’ from the assault.

It added: “Despite the incredibly violent scene that unfolds in front of him the male doesn’t move, flinch or even take his hand out of his pocket.

“This causes me concern as it appears as though this kind of behaviour is totally normal.”

One of the attackers was already known to staff following his involvement in a previous ‘serious assault’ which left a customer unconscious and had been barred from the premises.

Speaking at the hearing, police were also critical of posts on the bar’s Facebook page advertising a ‘summer rave’ event headlined by an act called ‘DJ Assault’.

Bar staff claimed cocaine use was ‘devastating the area’ and said it had lead to Sundays being dubbed ‘Suicide Sunday’.

They also claimed they had helped police with intelligence gathering, although this was disputed by officers present.

Arif Toshi, Lux Bar’s manager, said: “I made a mistake in the way I was running the bar, but in the future everything will be completely different and if I get another chance it will be a completely different place.”

But this was rejected by the committee, which revoked the licence and agreed to continue the current suspension during the appeal period, during which the business’s managers can attempt to have the decision overturned.

Committee chairman Coun Colin Carr said: “We are not convinced that you fully understand the conditions of licensing and I’m personally concerned the people in your premises (the customers) have been running the premises.”