A Barnard Castle bar is seeking to shed its reputation as a late-night drinking venue after it was summoned to a licensing hearing.
CroBar was ordered to extend CCTV coverage of its premises to remove any blind spots following an alleged assault involving a member of its door staff in the early hours of September 13.
That incident saw a man hospitalised with facial injuries. Footage shows him being removed from the premises by two bouncers, but there was a four-minute period where all three people involved were out of view of the cameras as the group left the alleyway that gives access to the venue.
The Horsemarket bar was also instructed to ensure better communication with the police in response to any future incidents, following criticism that it was hard to make contact with staff and access footage from the night in question.
Meanwhile, CroBar’s license holder, Luke Sutton, told the hearing that the venue was looking to reposition as a tapas bar.
“The premises used to be a nightclub,” he said. “But we’ve decided to move away from late night trade and become more of a food-based business.”
Following the hearing, CroBar opened on Friday and Saturday with reduced hours from noon until 8pm.
Explaining why the bar rarely stayed open as late as 4am – as permitted under its license – bar manager Scott Docherty added: “If it’s busy and people are enjoying themselves we can stay open longer, but when it’s quiet we might shut at 12.30am.
“And in the case that there’s trouble elsewhere in town we can shut earlier. Because we are the last place open, if there has been an incident in another part of town we tend to end up having to deal with it.”
The hearing followed a police request for a summary license review. Licensing Sergeant Caroline Dickenson raised concerns after the man was hospitalised.
When questioned by members of the licensing sub-committee, Sgt Dickenson added that police had been called to 12 incidents at CroBar since October 2024.
That included a series of calls in late June and early July. After that summer spike, the bar replaced its door staff provider.
CroBar also said that following the reported incident on September 13, two independent witnesses had made contact with staff and stated that they saw “nothing untoward” at the time the injured man was ejected.
“There are two independent statements from witnesses who we are told are friends of the victim,” added Mr Sutton. “They don’t know our door staff, there’s no reason for them to defend the door staff.”
Since the hearing, CroBar installed five additional CCTV cameras, extending coverage of the blind spot where the reported incident took place.
The police were satisfied with the upgrade and allowed the premises to continue trading from noon on Friday.
Following the police’s concerns over the September 13 incident, a summary license review must be held by October 21.
