A pub has been closed for another two months after a brawl and reports of shooting in its car park.

When Canterbury’s pub in Blackwater does reopen it will be under strict conditions, including closing by 11pm every night.

A panel of Hart district councillors suspended the pub’s licence last week after hearing of a shooting in the pub car park and a bar brawl.

David King, the council’s principal licensing officer, said police issued a closure order on the pub following the bar brawl on May 31.

He said that at 2.17am two men entered the pub, one armed with a handgun and one with a baseball bat.

A fight started in which several men received serious injuries.

Mr King said police arrived to find a large amount of broken glass, overturned bar stools and splattered blood.

He added: “There was also an indication that a man was further threatening to return to the premises and shoot the manager at the time, Kevin Davison.”

At the time, the pub was leased by Enterprise Inns to Michael Kemp, who was also the designated premises supervisor (DPS).
However, the premises licence for Canterbury’s has now been formally transferred back to Enterprise Inns.

Mr King said the pub had been a magnate for problems of nuisance, noise and crime and disorder since the end of last year until the closure order was issued.

Chairman Cllr Colin Ive said: “These premises have got a significantly bad reputation because of what has gone on there.

“I’m now looking to the future and what Enterprise Inns can do to change this reputation.”

Clare Johnson, representing Enterprise Inns, told the hearing that Mr Kemp took a 21-year lease on the pub five years ago.

She said that as far as the company was aware the pub was being run in an acceptable manner until the shooting incident in December.

Mrs Johnson pointed out that Enterprise Inns are now on red alert and will ensure that the next person in charge is strong enough to take on a pub of this nature.

She added that some of the most stringent conditions she has ever seen would be in place when the pub re-opens.

Mrs Johnson said the condition to limit the sale of alcohol to 10.30pm was even more restrictive than under the 1964 Licensing Act.

She added: “No rogues would want to stay in a pub that closes at 10.30pm.”

The licensing panel also ruled that Mr Kemp is removed as the DPS and that CCTV must be installed to cover the inside and outside of the pub with copies being made available to police on request.