A FULL hearing to review the alcohol licence for a Boscombe bar will be held later this month.

Dorset Police used expedited powers for the first time in seven years at the end of January to request BCP Council suspends the licence for Bar 7.

Councillors found the Christchurch Road pool bar’s management had “a lack of control” and revoked its permission to sell alcohol.

The decision of a council licensing sub-committee came after a serious assault on January 25 in which a man was left with what were believed to be “potentially life-threatening” injuries.

Councillor Lewis Allison, cabinet member for communities, said: “This is a fantastic example of how licensing powers can have a positive impact on the local community.

“These powers are in place to keep everybody safe, and we acted quickly to ensure no further incidents would take place.”

The expedited review was called by Dorset Police on January 30 with a council licensing sub-committee meeting the following day to consider it.

It found there was “a lack of control” at the bar and that its management “had not taken its responsibilities seriously”.

The bar’s designated premises supervisor was also removed from the licence.

Police licensing sergeant Gareth Gosling said: “Our drug and alcohol harm reduction team will work with our partners to tackle premises that are considered not to be promoting the licensing objectives and we are grateful that the sub-committee took the interim steps to suspend the alcohol provision at this premises.”

As a result of the use of the expedited review, powers reserved for cases where businesses are believed to be associated with serious crime or disorder, a full hearing will now have to take place.

This will consider whether the licence should be permanently revoked.

BCP Council has confirmed this will be considered by a further meeting of the licensing sub-committee on Monday, February 24 in Christchurch.