A city nightclub will be closed for six weeks after police produced a dossier of disorder detailing alcohol-fuelled violence and underage drinking.

The Imperial, in Park End Street, was told yesterday its premises licence had been suspended until May 1 by city council licensing chiefs. And it was warned to clean up its act or face permanent closure.

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Drinks promotions - including 'toss for a shot' where drinkers can win a spirit shot on the flick of a coin - and a string of disturbances worried police chiefs so much they urged the city council to close the venue.

However, licensing officials decided to give the venue time to sort out its problems.

Police licensing co-ordinator Tony Cope said: "Putting more conditions on the licence and rectifying the situation would be wasting time."

After the hearing he added: "Suspension is a halfway house for us. It was not being run responsibly - there was too much of a crime-and-disorder issue with underage drinking and violence. We will look quite closely at it. It will stay on our radar for a long time."

Police cited several recent disturbances - including a fight involving 15 to 20 men which erupted outside the club on February 16, but no bouncers intervened. A week before, toilets were swabbed for drugs during a licensing check and a high reading of cocaine was found.

Environmental health officer Scott Grant said "a huge list of problems" were found at an inspection during December.

City centre police inspector Richard Brown said: "The premises really came to our attention back in August and all the way through the autumn.

"There was a steady drip of assaults and thefts. Management did not seem to have a grip on controlling these incidents."

Club manager Philip Glenn said since he took over four weeks ago there had been no major incidents. He said the dress code had been tightened and identification was now requested from all guests.

Financial problems were blamed on the club's failure to immediately fix licence breaches, but all matters were now being dealt with, he said.

A one-off event at the club on Sunday is still scheduled to go ahead.

Mr Cope said the suspension would not come into effect until April 9 if there was an appeal which failed.