Alan Miller: "We must ensure our clubs are not one incident away from closure"

The news that Fabric nightclub will be reopening in London is something that every reader of Mixmag will be cheering – and rightly so. The venue that is dedicated to promoting cutting edge dance music and entertaining people from around the world at such high standards is a precious and prized asset for us all. The world will be a better place with it’s doors open again.

But while it is completely understandable that fabric has had to make the decision to go along with wording and additional conditions in order to reopen, the point that has been made to the world and that is still true, is that the club already was operated at a gold standard when the tragic incidents occurred.

It may well be that now that standard goes from '18 carat' to '22 carat' gold, but the key point is that with the amount of security and searches and surveillance that was already in place at fabric, the club should not have had an expedited review and revocation of licence in the first place. This is a crucial point and should not get lost in the celebrations that people will quite rightly want to have.

It is of course utterly tragic that two men (and they were eighteen year old adults, not children) died in a close period of time, making a total of six deaths at the venue since 2011. As has been covered widely, millions of people have been through the doors of fabric. With more security per person than any other venue and a myriad of checks, the issue of drug taking is one to do with society. Nightclubs, bars and other venues do not grow or manufacture drugs.

We need an honest and grown-up conversation about drug taking in the UK. The British Medical Journal last week had a report recommending the legalisation of all illegal drugs for the benefit of society and states in the USA including California, Alaska and Colorado have legalised marijuana and in Portugal there has been decriminalisation of previously controlled substances. The War on Drugs has been criticised by many international experts and has taken an enormous toll in terms of incarceration of citizens, with pressure on prison services and iolence on borders. While it is absolutely of benefit to have initiatives set up by organisations like The Loop, run by Professor Fiona Measham, that test drugs and encourage harm reduction as a safety mechanism for public health and, indeed, businesses, we should not lose sight of the fact that licensed premises are being held accountable for increasing amounts of behaviour by individuals that they are themselves victims of.

Fabric now has a raft of additional license conditions as well as having a mandatory age of entry of 19. It is of course correct that venues should be able to decide who comes in to their premises and why. However, without broader changes to legislation and on the ground partnership with police forces, these types of increased security measures and impositions impact the vibrancy of our nightlife for the music loving public and the industry alike.

The British public voted against identity cards, yet nowadays so many places require ID to gain access to a venue. CCTV and ID Scans have been increasingly promoted by the police, along with requirements for ever increasing security personnel and sometimes even metal detectors and Breathalyzers to get in. This is all part of an approach that has seen police forces being asked to deal with ever increasing issues from terrorism to cyber crime, while having their resources cut by 40 per cent. Understandably, they are struggling and concerned. However, turning our world leading licensed premises into prison-style checks – just see the recent coverage of Pentonville prison where all aspects of prison life can be supervised and regulated and again, drugs cannot be prevented – creates an uninviting environment for what is a very well-behaved British public and international tourists. It is unsurprising that so many increasingly vote with their feet and head to Berlin, Amsterdam and Barcelona for a night out.

This is why we need to have a common voice together: to keep saying to our Local Councillors up and down the country and to tell our MPs that represent us in Parliament how we feel about our clubs and why we want to see partnership with police and councils and not immediate punishment when issues arise, which they inevitably will do. I invite readers to sign the petition at Save Nightlife which sends a message to your local councillor. This is part of a wider strategy that involves working with City Hall, lobbying the Home Office around guidance for licensing and with DCMS, DCLG and other government representatives.

The Night Time Commission at City Hall and the new Night Czar are significant steps in the right direction. We all need to work together, all stakeholders across police, transport, housing and music industry and not to move to close a premises immediately when there are issues, but rather sit down together and work out strategies to improve and resolve issues. When people die at the beach or on public transport as at Croydon, hard and thorny questions must indeed be asked but closing down such vital areas of our national culture and heritage cannot be the solution.

It is fantastic that we will be able to go to fabric again and it will host the best of the world’s talent for all to enjoy together. However, we must make further changes so that venues are not held accountable for personal behaviour, whether that is for someone being violent, abusive or ingesting toxic substances. We all have a common goal in striving for this together. We should remember too, that at one point it was inconceivable that needle sharing for heroin addicts would be permissible. Now it is seen simply as common sense. We live in a new and changing world and we must act to ensure that our clubs, bars, festivals and pop ups are not one incident away from closure. Fabric is back - hurrah! But it has to operate at levels that are immensely trying – and in a world where things simply happen. Let's all have our voices heard now that so many have done so much to help save fabric. Now, let's all save nightlife together.

Alan D Miller is Chairman of The Night Time Industries Association, follow him on Twitter