00:00The Crane nightclub in Digbeth will not be reopening any time soon.
00:07That's after city councillors threw out a fresh application for a new licence,
00:11more than two years after 23-year-old footballer Cody Fisher
00:15was stabbed to death inside the venue on Boxing Day.
00:18The club's original licence was revoked shortly after the murder,
00:22but a new firm, Birmingham Limited, submitted a bid to bring the space back to life
00:26under different management, with promises of tighter security.
00:30They argued it would support the local economy and breathe new life into the area,
00:34but West Midlands Police strongly objected.
00:37They claimed the application wasn't as independent as it appeared,
00:41pointing to overlaps between the new bid and those previously involved in running the club.
00:46Officers said it risked undermining the original licence ban
00:49and that any restart before the appeal on that decision is settled would be premature.
00:55The applicant businessman Matthew Bolter admitted mistakes had been made
00:59describing one early meeting with police as a schoolboy error,
01:03but he insisted this was a brand new team, unrelated to those behind the venue
01:07at the time of the fatal incident.
01:10The council's licensing sub-committee rejected the bid outright,
01:13citing serious doubts about whether the venue could truly be detached from the past.
01:19The decision was welcomed by Cody's family,
01:22who've opposed any move to reopen the club since his death.
01:24A solicitor representing his mother said she felt her own life ended the night Cody was killed.
01:33This is not just a story about licensing,
01:36it's about accountability, memory,
01:38and whether a place so linked to tragedy can ever truly start afresh.
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