Fabric Saved But Police Impose Stringent Security Measures

Fabric has been saved after a scare over its future. At a council meeting last night, the Farringdon club had a number of strigent conditions imposed on its license but avoided closure.

Following recommendations from the Metropolitan police representatives at the meeting, Fabric have been forced to introduce stricter security measures, including an ID scanning system and sniffer dogs, that see entry to the club become not massively dissimilar to airport security.

It will become the first club in London to use sniffer dogs every night, which, according to Fabric representatives, will cost the club around £2100 per night in handler and dog costs. Although, they raised questions over the reliability of the checks.

Clubbers will also have to submit to an ID scan on entry. A Fabric spokesman said the club had already trialled the system and had turned away a clubber when his ID revealed a previous nightclub ban. A barrister acting on behalf of the police said that the Met would request data from the club only "if an offence has been committed".

The review was called following the death of a 18-year-old girl from an MDMA overdose in September, the fourth drug-related death at the venue. The police said there was "exceptional risk to the club's cliental".

A longtime Fabric clubber who attended the meeting, said he had only been offered drugs "once in 200 times" that he attended the venue over the past 15 years. He called the ID scanning system "a gross violation of privacy".

Keith Reilly, owner of the venue, told the Evening Standard: "In 15 years we have had six million people come through the doors and sadly there have been four deaths."

"We do everything we can to stop people taking drugs in the club. What's happened recently is this country is awash with drugs."

A petition to renew the club's license garnered 35,000 signatures in less than a day. A Facebook group, "Save Fabric London", was also created to back the club.

Fabric's license review falls almost exactly a year on from a similar conflict over the Ministry of Sound. Last December, Ministry reached an agreement with developer Oakmanye Properties after plans to build flats opposite the club.