POLICE and bar owners are calling on pubs and clubs across the district to work together and do more to tackle anti-social behaviour following last month's brawl in Epping which left 13 people in hospital.

As the future of Club One9Five hangs in the balance following the mass fight outside its premises, some businesses have gone to extreme lengths to show their premises are a safe place to have a night out, while police have said they want to expand a “Pubwatch” network across the district which they hope will encourage more venues to talk to each other about potential troublemakers.

Adam Brooks, the owner of Nu Bar in Loughton High Road, was so shocked by the violence in Epping that within days he went out and bought hand-held metal detectors which his doormen now use to scan all customers on Friday and Saturday nights, and is a keen member of Pubwatch.

Mr Brooks knows only too well about the impact of drunken violence.

His father, Alan Brooks, was stabbed to death at the Loughton pub he owned in 1991.

He said: “We work closely with the police and we've had a lot of them outside the last couple of weeks, but it does worry me that some people will get the wrong impression – it's easy for bars all to get tarnished with the same brush.

“We don't have trouble here but we are very safety conscious and want to do everything we can.

“But it is very disappointing not every bar and pub is involved in Pubwatch as it's a great idea and I think it really makes a difference.”

Nu Bar manager Craig Church agreed.

He said: said: “If you only have a few places involved it won't work properly, we've all got to be in this together.

“We just want to make everyone feel safer.”

Debden PC Sami Dawood said: “We have about six or seven premises in Loughton and Debden involved in Pubwatch – it is a new scheme so you're never going to get everyone involved straight away but it's already started to make an impact.

“We would like to get more places involved and we would like to get places in Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill involved as well.”