Video of brawl meant only for Westminster officials accidentally posted for all to see

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

Westminster City council has launched an internal probe after accidentally uploading CCTV footage of a fight at a Mayfair venue to its public website.

The video, which recorded a brawl at Duke Street’s Concept Club, was intended to be shared among Westminster councillors and officers. A case of ‘human error’ however led to it being publicly visible for around six hours .

A spokesman for the local authority said as soon as the issue was flagged to officers, it was taken down and reported to the local authority’s internal Data Protection Officer.

The fight at Concept Club occurred early on July 15, at a Wireless Festival after-party hosted at the venue. Police reported 15 people were involved, three of whom were hospitalised including a man who had been stabbed in his abdomen.

On August 12, the council’s licensing sub-committee revoked the club’s licence as a result of the incident, following a request by the Met Police.

In that meeting, Sarah Clover, legal counsel for the licensee, referenced a video published to Westminster’s website before having to be removed.

Asked about the footage, the council’s spokesman said: “The video mentioned is CCTV footage of a fight which had taken place at the venue.

“This was meant to be shared internally with councillors and officers via the council’s internal system ahead of the committee but was accidently posted as public rather than private which led to it being visible on the council’s website for a few hours on August 9 evening.

“As soon as it was flagged to officers that this had happened the video was taken down.

Earlier this year, Westminster City council had to remove a document uploaded to its website which mistakenly referred to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs).

Known as the draft infrastructure delivery plan, it included tracked changes which showed two mentions of LTNs crossed out, and replaced with ‘Neighbourhood Traffic Management’ schemes. The council took down the draft document after admitting it had been published ‘in error’.

Pictured top: Westminster City council offices in Victoria Street (Picture: LDRS)