Aspers Stratford alcohol licence suspended

Latest news update 6th October

Evidently, after the story noted below, Aspers have had their licence suspension lifted pending some sort of licence hearing towards the end of October. They’re by no means out of the woods though, and they’ll surely be hoping for a quiet, peaceful time leading up to the next step.

This licence suspension has sent shockwaves through the industry, and the full repercussions are yet to be determined.

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Breaking news in from the behemoth Aspers site in Stratford, at the Westfield shopping mall. It seems they have had a major setback, in that their liquor licence has been suspended for what appears to be an assault by staff on a customer.

Details are still a little bit sketchy, but it would appear that they are unable to serve alcohol at all until a hearing can be convened – it seems some sort of emergency measures were put in place to temporarily suspend their booze service until the proper meeting can be arranged.

The Aspers site at Stratford, scene of what appears to be a crime with dire consequences

The Aspers site has had some problems of late, with their liquor licence being formally reviewed a couple of times in recent months, resulting in a number of measures including having to agree to serve drinks in plastic glasses. From our perspective, while there’s always more to it than meets the eye, it’s an absolutely huge and extraordinarily busy site, so the occasional flare up is bound to happen. The deal with plastic glasses makes sense for sure, but it does seem slightly disconnected to cut off their booze service for staff assaulting a customer, presumably the two things aren’t directly connected.

Clearly if the assault has taken place it’s outrageous, and steps must be taken, one imagines from a disciplinary and legal point of view, but the actions of one or more staff aren’t representative of the whole company, and knowing Aspers, they will have been very diligent in their training programme. You can’t legislate for the old red mist sometimes, and as we  all know customers can be annoying to the point of driving you nuts.  None of this absolves any type of misbehaviour, from rudeness to assault, but taking away an alcohol licence for what appears to be an unconnected matter seems a little odd.

Anyway, plenty more news to come out about this story, and we will update this post as we hear it. Regardless of the rights and wrongs, it’s a blow to the Aspers site for sure, and given what a great experience it is to visit and play there, one we hope is dealt with swiftly and successfully for all concerned.  Except the staff committing the assault, who if it’s true and they’re guilty, deserve what they get.