Story by Rob Smith
The Cactus Club, situated on Earsham Street near Heath and Sons Funeral Directors has been closed most of the year. Anwar Suliman and Trenton Wiggins, associates of club owner Castell Fanty, have been working together with the Police to re-establish the premises as a legitimate business.
“We’ve not only been working with the Police, but the Fire Service, licensing, as well as health and safety departments,” adds Anwar Suliman. “Proper architect’s plans have been done to enable us to accommodate functions within the building.”
“The building will be run by a highly professional security firm that employs male and female security people,” explained Mr Fanty. “It will also have state-of-the-art CCTV monitoring systems that, of course, would be accessible to the police. The club will employ up to 30 people – I’m hoping most of them will be from this community.”
Jon Ekwubiri, Community Safety Inspector for Burngreave, informed us that the club was closed in January. “Many people will know the Cactus Club by reputation,” explained the Inspector. “It’s had its fair share of trouble. There have been a series of public order incidents in and around it. We also had incidents of criminals running inside the building to escape police officers. This has led to raids where drugs and alcohol were found. The Club had no licence to serve alcohol or host public events.”
Licence faces objections
The Inspector went on to explain that he’s been working with the statutory agencies and the owner of the club:
“With Mr Castell Fanty, known to many as ‘Dakka’, and others I’ve been to six meetings concerning the matter, in the hope we can get the club up and running in a safe way and as a legitimate business. Getting the proper licences is not an easy task and can be expensive. I have invited environmental health and the fire brigade, amongst others, to look at the premises so that a proper submission for a licence can be made. But any of these agencies can make an objection and I can’t say any more because the licence request is due in court.”
The Cactus Club licence bid will be heard in late October. If unsuccessful this may force Castell Fanty and those who’ve helped him back to the drawing board. Again this raises issues about the lack of weekend club facilities being allowed to flourish and catering for this large section of our community.