A hearing will be held into the request by a Cape Hill restaurant to open until 4am after the fire service raised safety concerns over missing fire alarms and smoke detectors. 

The owners of De Vibez Lounge in Cape Hill, Smethwick, had requested 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 the fire service, safety officers found that no fire alarms or detectors were 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 in December last year and recently applied for a late-night licence to open until 4am at weekends. The application also asks for permission to sell alcohol between 11am and 11.30pm from Monday to Thursday and 11am and 11.30pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

The venue also wants to play recorded music between 11am and midnight on weekdays and 11am and 4am at the weekend. The proposed opening hours are 11am to midnight between Monday and Thursday and 11am to 4am from Friday to Sunday.

The fire service said an alarm system needed to be installed and the artificial plants removed “as a minimum” before the objection could be removed.

The fire service also said the applicant did not turn up for a planned visit and a supplied phone number “seemed to be incorrect". They said records showed that the restaurant “may not have been accepted under a building regulations application for public use.” 

“The premises may also require planning and listed building consent,” the fire service added. “Records also indicate that some fire safety concerns, which were previously raised by [Sandwell Council], may not have been fully addressed.

“The premises will need to be fitted with a suitable automatic and manual fire detection and alarm system,” the fire safety officer said. “The flammable artificial plants should be removed from the walls and the floors, wall, and ceilings of both lobbies.”

The former Wetherspoon’s pub on the corner of Cape Hill and Waterloo Road had sat empty for several years after the budget chain left in 2014. The grade II listed building dates back to the early 1900s and was formerly a Lloyd’s bank. 

Wetherspoons was given permission to convert the former bank into a pub way back in 1999. The pub closed in 2014 and stayed empty for a number of years before plans to re-open the listed building as a new restaurant, office and commercial space as well as flats were revealed in 2018. Sandwell Council approved plans for three units and five flats several months later.

The council had served the owners of the grade II listed building with an enforcement notice after several upper-floor windows were replaced without planning permission. The council said it had ‘serious’ concerns about the unauthorised work – with the owners claiming the windows were damaged and rotting – but the plans were approved anyway.

Another planning application asking for permission to convert a former first-floor kitchen into a new flat was also approved in 2020. Making the entire floor residential increased the number of flats to six, according to the application. 

Sandwell Council’s licensing subcommittee meets from 2pm on Wednesday, June 5.