{"id":378843,"date":"2026-01-19T18:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T18:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/378843\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T18:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T18:47:09","slug":"police-to-ban-undesirables-from-north-easts-radgiest-pub-but-council-will-let-it-reopen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/378843\/","title":{"rendered":"Police to ban ‘undesirables’ from North East’s ‘radgiest’ pub \u2013 but council will let it reopen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northumbria Police plan to issue banning notices to problem patrons of The County, in Walker, which will be allowed to reopen under new management and subject to stricter conditions\"A<\/p>\n

The County in Walker, which has recently been closed down.(Image: ChronicleLive)<\/p>\n

Trouble-making patrons face being banned from a Tyneside pub which was shut down by police \u2013 but the boozer will be allowed to reopen under new management. The County, in Walker<\/a>, was served a closure notice earlier this month<\/a> amid complaints that it had a \u201csignificant history of incidents of crime and disorder\u201d and that staff had \u201cno control\u201d over its customers.<\/p>\n

Long-running concerns over mass brawls and anti-social behaviour surrounding the Walker Road bar culminated in an incident on December 20 last year, when there were reports of a man seen with a machete and around 20 people fighting outside the pub. The venue, recently named the \u2018radgiest\u2019 in the North East<\/a> by popular TikToker Liam Lavery, is currently subject to a court order forcing it to remain closed until February 5, but city councillors have decided not to revoke its licence.<\/p>\n

However, when The County reopens it will be subject to strict conditions aimed at turning around its reputation. Newcastle City Council<\/a>\u2019s licensing sub-committee heard on Monday morning that police will be upping patrol levels in the area and will have a list of people to be issued Community Protection Notices banning them from the pub.<\/p>\n

Neighbourhood inspector Craig Patchett told the review hearing that the plan to let the bar reopen was \u201cnot without risk\u201d but that police wanted to \u201csupport that community pub\u201d. Northumbria Police<\/a> solicitor Hayley Hebb described how pub staff had been reluctant to act to deal with past problems \u2013 either out of loyalty to customers or because they were \u201csimply frightened\u201d and did not want to report incidents to the police \u201cfor fear of some sort of reprisal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Hebb added: \u201cThat is no way to run a licensed premises. The police view is that those involved with the crime, disorder, and anti-social behaviour had the control or the run of the place \u2013 or, at least that staff did not have the confidence, ability, and a willing to intervene or check or try to control those people getting inside the premises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evidence presented to councillors on Monday included a lengthy list of incidents, including mass brawls last September and March, people throwing fireworks at cars on Bonfire Night, and youths setting a fire in the neighbouring car park of the Tree Top retirement village in October 2024. Malcolm Ireland, representing pub owner Trust Inns, said that the site\u2019s problems were being caused by an \u201celement of undesirables\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that the pub\u2019s previous tenants had not been directly involved in criminal or anti-social behaviour, but \u201csimply weren\u2019t strong enough\u201d to challenge it. Mr Ireland confirmed that the pub\u2019s designated premises supervisor had already been removed from its licence and said it was \u201cvery unlikely\u201d that The County would reopen as soon as the closure order expires in early February \u2013 pledging that Trust Inns would \u201ctake our time to get it right\u201d when selecting a new tenant.<\/p>\n

Among the conditions agreed with the police and approved by the committee on Monday is a requirement for at least two door staff to be stationed outside the premises every Friday and Saturday night for two months after it reopens. Mr Ireland said this would \u201csend a clear message to the public that things will be different to how they were previously\u201d and help in dealing with potential conflicts with problem customers who \u201cwon\u2019t like it when they are told that they are no longer welcome\u201d.<\/p>\n

The conditions also include all children having to be accompanied by an adult at all times in the pub and to have left the premises by 7pm. Patrons will also be banned from taking drinks away from the pub, other than in its enclosed outdoor seating area.<\/p>\n

City council licensing boss Jonathan Bryce said that talks with the licence holder over The County had been \u201cconstructive\u201d and that the revised conditions would be a \u201csignificant improvement\u201d in the hope of producing a \u201cfar more robust and controlled\u201d operation.<\/p>\n

Our ChronicleLive Daily newsletter is free. You can sign up to receive it here<\/a>. It will keep you up to date with all the latest breaking news and top stories from the North East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northumbria Police plan to issue banning notices to problem patrons of The County, in Walker, which will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,32627,7121,56,54,55,142425],"class_list":{"0":"post-378843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-newcastle-city-council","11":"tag-newcastle-upon-tyne","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-walker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}