Tougher licensing conditions have been placed on a pub which has been plagued with assaults this year.

The Central Hotel in Barking Road, East Ham, was the subject of a licensing sub-committee on Thursday July 25 where police told councillors “four crimes have been reported which have been of a serious nature, three of which were assaults committed at the venue and the other being an aggravated burglary. Some of these offences had weapons involved.”

The committee heard how a fight broke out at 7.20pm on May 23 which ended in one man holding a knife up to another’s throat.

No arrests were made and customers and staff said they did not see the incident and refused to give any details.

The police had also been called to the pub a month earlier on April 17 at around 11.45pm when a bouncer had been head-butted after asking a man to stop smoking inside. The bouncer was also not willing to give a statement.

Two weeks earlier on April 5 at 9.30pm, a woman had to flee to a back room after a man threatened her with an eight-inch kitchen knife. The man then tried to open the till before his brother disarmed him, the report said. A suspect was later arrested.

On January 5 at 4.30pm, a man walking just yards from the pub was bloodied in the face by a flying knuckle duster in an apparently random attack.

The licensees of the pub agreed to impose new restrictions such as registering security staff on the doors; carrying out random searches on customers; retraining staff and keeping a written record of who can sell alcohol; operating a proof of age scheme; and putting up drug free, zero tolerance posters.

Newham Council’s Cllr Ian Corbett, chair of the committee, said: “Central needs to get its act together very fast. These tough measures are designed to ensure it does just that.

“Let this be a warning to other licensed premises who step out of line.

“We will never shirk from taking the tough action necessary to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.”