Sniffer dogs to be used at fabric

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  • Islington Council last night voted to enforce several new security measures at the Farringdon club.
  • Sniffer dogs to be used at fabric image
  • A raft of new security measures will be installed at fabric, including £300-a-night sniffer dogs, after the club's licence was reviewed by Islington Council. The changes were promoted by police recommendations—a report filed to Islington Council revealed there have been four drug-related deaths at the venue in three years. In addition to the sniffer dogs, the council's licensing committee voted for the club to introduce ID checks on all clubbers, improve CCTV and increase drug searches, London Evening Standard report. Each four-hour shift for a dog and its handler will cost fabric £300. The club say they will appeal the decision. "We'll be appealing," club founder Keith Reilly told the Standard. "We need to see their written reasons but we fundamentally disagree on a number of key points." Last night fabric released a statement that read: "fabric opened in October of 1999 and we've remained open over the 15 years since. Throughout this time, although the Farringdon area has changed, we've always prided ourselves on being a visible, approachable and integral part of the local community. Taking great lengths to work alongside and dialogue with local businesses and organisations we work tirelessly to ensure the safety of our patrons, at all times. We've run highly visible warning campaigns tackling numerous issues including drug use, safer travel, our harassment awareness initiative run in cooperation with Hollaback LDN and our Phone Safety campaign (which is now recognisable city-wide across London). "In short, we care deeply about the welfare of our patrons. fabric has always operated a zero tolerance drugs policy and we’re proud to continue to be open and honest in assisting the police with any incident investigations. "We employ two trained medics who are on site for the duration of all of our club events and, as a venue, we provide free water and non-judgmental advice from bar staff, stewards and security teams. The incidents referred to in the Met Police's report are truly tragic events; incidents that we assure you our team reacted to in the quickest possible and most efficient manner—our medical staff have since been commended by senior coroners on their 'impressive' and 'quite extraordinary' level of expertise. "As a team we've all felt the shock and horror that a death on our premises can cause. We don’t take it lightly; in fact, we’re constantly adapting our protocols in direct reaction to them in the hope that these are changes we can make to our operational policy that will prevent incidents like this from happening in the future."
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