TEN weeks after its re-opening, Epping night spot Club 195 invited Guardian reporter EDMUND TOBIN to take in the changes it had made.

WHEN Club 195 threw open its doors once more in February this year a lot had changed.

Shut after an alleged brawl, and granted leave to re-open under a new licence, the nightclub, in Cottis Lane, Epping, had to fulfil a string of conditions including improved CCTV, training for door staff, and regular meetings with police.

The club now boasts one of the most sophisticated ID systems around with the ability to input and store 388 different types of identification.

Co-owner David King said: “If you don't have ID you don't come in. If the identification is fake the machine tells us.

“Using this system we have barred people. If you do eject somebody, door staff go to the club scanner find that person and puts in the reasons why we've asked them to leave. Next time they come, it flags up straight away.”

Utilising the breakdown of ID available to them, the club owners claim they can prove over 50 per cent of their clientele consistently come from the Epping area.

Co-owner Scott Cummins said: “The perception is people in Epping don't want a nightclub. My mum and dad wouldn't want a nightclub on their doorstep, but clearly the younger people do want a nightclub on their doorstep. They're the people filling our club week after week. There's definitely a need for this type of club in this area.”

Mr King added: “You're honest people trying to work hard to make a business work, and you've got eight out of nine parts of a local community that want to see it work. Goodness, why shouldn't we service it?”

Continuing on its mission to be a safer club, 195 has added to an already extensive CCTV network, and now boasts 32 different cameras.

Mr King said: “We had the district council and police come in to specify exactly what they wanted, and we've gone far and above what they wanted. The police want to bring other venues in to see what we're doing. They say we're pioneering the way and they want other people to come up to our standard.”

The club has also retrained its doormen to pursue a “hands-off” policy to security.

Before the club's licence was taken away after a brawl outside its premises in October 2009, it had had a licence to serve drinks until 4am.

Mr King revealed that Club 195 had now won an appeal to reinstate that original licence, but had voluntarily surrendered it to continue with its compromise licence ending at 2am.

He said: “I think everyone would like to be later, but we have to think about the local people- the people who are around. If it suited everyone we'd like to go back to 4am, but there's a lot of people we're conscious we'd like to please before we do that.”

Mr King said there had also been change of clientele at the club and it now held an over 29s night on a Friday and an over 21s night on a Saturday.

He added the club had not had a criminal incident since its reopening.

Asked for his message to people still concerned about his venue Mr King said: “Come in and see us and make a judgement on what you see.”