Cape Hill’s De Vibez Lounge late-night permit hearing due to fire safety concerns

A hearing will be held into a Cape Hill restaurant’s application to open until 4am after the fire service raised safety concerns over a lack of fire alarms and smoke detectors. The owners of De Vibez Lounge in Cape Hill, Smethwick, have asked to extend their opening hours as well as sell alcohol and play music until the early hours.

But when the new restaurant was inspected by firefighters, safety officers found no fire alarms or detectors had been installed. A hearing will now be held by Sandwell Council’s licensing committee after West Midlands Fire Service raised an objection.

The African restaurant opened in the former Sampson Lloyd pub last December and recently applied for a license to open until 4am at weekends. The application also seeks permission to sell alcohol between 11am and 11.30pm Monday to Thursday and 11am and 11.30pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

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The venue also wants to play recorded music between 11am and midnight on weekdays and 11am and 4am on weekends. Proposed hours are 11:00 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday and 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. Friday through Sunday.

The fire service said an alarm system had to be installed and artificial plants removed “as a minimum” before the objection could be lifted. The fire service also said the applicant failed to attend a planned visit and a phone number provided “appeared to be incorrect”.

The fire service said records show the restaurant “may not have been accepted under a building regulations application for public use. “The premises may also require planning and listed building approval,” the fire service added. “The records also indicate that some fire safety concerns previously raised by (Sandwell Council) may not have been fully addressed.

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“The premises will have to be equipped with adequate automatic and manual fire detection and alarm system,” said the fire safety officer. “Flammable artificial plants should be removed from the walls and from the floors, walls and ceilings of both hallways.”

The former Wetherspoon’s pub on the corner of Cape Hill and Waterloo Road has been empty for several years after the budget chain left in 2014. The Grade II listed building dates from the early 1900s and was previously a Lloyd’s bank.

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Wetherspoons received permission to turn the former bank into a pub back in 1999. The pub closed in 2014 and sat empty for several years before plans to reopen the building were announced as a new restaurant, office and retail space. as the flats were revealed in 2018. Sandwell Council approved plans for three units and five flats a few months later.

The council served the owners of the Grade II listed building with an enforcement notice after several upstairs windows were replaced without planning permission. The council said it had “serious” concerns about the unauthorized work – with the owners claiming the windows were damaged and rotting – but the plans were approved anyway.

Another planning application seeking permission to convert a former kitchen on the first floor into a new flat was also approved in 2020. Making the entire residential floor increase the number of flats to six, according to the application. Sandwell Council’s licensing sub-committee meets from 2pm on Wednesday 5 June.