Former ‘nuisance’ pub to re-open as bar and grill

A former ‘nuisance’ pub in Wolverhampton will be allowed to open as a new bar and grill.

The Pendulum in Blaydon Road, Pendeford, will re-open under new owner Tajinder Singh after it was granted an alcohol licence by City of Wolverhampton Council following a hearing on Friday (August 22).

The pub had its licence revoked in 2022 after it was accused of being a ‘hub for criminal activity and base for human trafficking’ by West Midlands Police.

This had followed the pub losing its licence after breaking Covid lockdown restrictions in 2020 by continuing to open to the public. 

The council’s licensing committee ruled the Pendeford pub, which has gone through an extensive renovation, will be allowed to re-open from 7am to 11.30pm every day as the new Penedulum Bar and Grill.

A number of neighbours had objected to a proposed later weekend closing time saying they had been subjected to noise and disorder in recent years – a catalogue of issues that even resulted in one fed-up neighbour calling for it to be demolished to put them out of their misery. 

The new owner Tajinder Singh, who also owns a string of pubs including the Jolly Sailor and the Railway Inn in West Bromwich, Port N Ale in Tipton and the Firs in Wolverhampton, had originally applied to open until 1am at weekends but agreed to bring the bar and grill’s closing time forward after speaking with police and neighbours.

At the hearing Cllr Jane Francis, who represents the Oxley ward, said the local community had welcomed the clean-up of the ‘troubled’ pub and were looking to put its troubled past behind them.

However, she was concerned by the early opening hours – which would encourage all-day drinking and set a bad example for nearby schoolchildren – and the late closing time. 

“We’re not in the city centre,” she said. “How many families go out for a meal at 11 o’clock at night?”

Cllr Francis added that extensions to opening hours could easily be applied for once the new bar and grill had “established itself as responsible and reliable.”

The new owners assured the committee that alcohol would not be served before 11am and agreed for that to be reflected in the proposal for a new licence. 

After several authorities had earlier raised concerns over the licence application, including West Midlands Police, the pub’s new owner had signed an agreement saying the new bar and grill would open until midnight at weekends instead of 1am.

However at the hearing, the new owners said they would cease licensable activities – which includes the sale of alcohol – at 11pm and then close at 11.30pm but also intended for the opening hours to be extended to midnight at weekends, bank holidays and during Diwali. 

However, the licensing committee ruled the new pub would not be granted the extended hours and would have to stick to a blanket closing time of 11.30pm throughout the week.

A handful of neighbours had withdrawn their objections based on a promise that the pub would close at 11pm.

The committee said the intention to show live sport on TV screens would attract a different ‘rowdier’ crowd to the expected atmosphere of the ‘family’ restaurant the owners were promising.

West Midlands Police were happy for the bar and grill to open at midnight but the licensing committee said that would likely disturb neighbours.

The Pendulum has had a troubled past and its licence was revoked in 2020 when Soran Rostam was listed as the licence holder. 

The licence was later returned under the condition that Mr Rostam had no involvement with the business. 

A search by West Midlands Police and the Home Office in February 2022 found illegal workers at a neighbouring hand car wash also run by Mr Ali. It was later confirmed the car wash workers lived above the pub. 

Mr Ali had then applied to have Mr Rostam named on the licence allowing his return to the pub, despite the warnings and the instruction from the council that he should never be involved with running it.

West Midlands Police later called for the licence to be reviewed again over the ‘serious’ links to organised crime and human trafficking and it was eventually revoked months later.

West Midlands Police said the pub, its first floor flats, and a neighbouring hand car wash were owned and run by Mohammed Ali and his father Khalil Ali.

According to police, Khalil Ali was convicted in 2021 for attempting to smuggle 45 people in the back of a lorry in Poland. 

Khalil Ali was in charge when the pub was inspected throughout February and March 2022 when dozens of breaches were found and during the discovery of the illegal workers. 

Despite appealing the decision, the owner Mohammed Ali failed to turn up to Dudley Magistrates’ Court for the hearing.