Councillors have tightened up licensing conditions on a pub after a man died from a drug overdose in the toilets.

The licence of Stratford’s King Edward VII pub, popularly known as the King Eddie, was reviewed before Newham Council’s licensing sub-committee at Newham Town Hall on June 13.

Police also gave evidence about an incident at the pub at 47 Broadway on April 11 when a woman found a man dead in a female toilet cubicle at around 10.30pm.

He was found to have been smoking Class A drugs shortly before his death.

The man was unknown to staff who said he was not a regular customer.

A police officer returned to the pub the next day with a council licensing officer and swabbed the flat surfaces around the toilet to discover “substantial traces of cocaine”.

According to the police statement, it appeared that people had been entering via an entrance to the right of the pub which leads to the toilets at the back.

This blind spot meant that addicts could enter the pub unseen by staff.

The council set a number of new licensing conditions on the pub to combat the problem including improved and stringent staff training and regular checks for drug activity in the toilets; a register of violent, criminal, drug-related and anti-social behaviour incidents; more CCTV cameras; and more prominent signs warning about stiff penalities for drug use.

Representatives from Rocky Raj Ltd, who took over the licence from New English Pub Company Ltd last summer, agreed to all licensing conditions and said the toilets would be checked hourly.

They added that staff would like to learn how to swab for drugs from the police and share this knowledge with other local businesses to tackle the problem in the wider area.

Cllr Ian Corbett, who chairs the committee, said: “The current situation is utterly unacceptable and these tough new steps are designed to address this robustly and vigorously.”