THE NIGHTCLUB which saw two men gunned down outside its doors has escaped closure but had its opening hours slashed by councillors after a five hour hearing.

Police sought to revoke the licence of CJ's, in Uxbridge Road, West Ealing, after a litany of complaints from neighbours and a spate of crime associated with the basement club and the Black George above it.

But today councillors Daniel Crawford, Benjamin Dehennehy and Swarn Singh Kang chose instead to force the club to stop serving alcohol and playing music at 2am. Previously it had been allowed to run until 4am Friday and Saturdays and 2am the rest of the week.

Police highlighted submissions by 18 residents complaining about the noise and intimidation caused, two thirds of them calling for the club's licence to be revoked. They included heads of resident associations, Walpole councillor Ann Chapman and Ealing and Acton MP Angie Bray.

One of the neighbours, Ian Gardner of Lovelace House, Uxbridge Road, appeared in person. He said: "I'm making the representation because of the large numbers of people coming from the premises in question between 3am and 5.30am, making a large amount of noise, playing car stereos loudly, fighting and range of other anti-social behaviour.

"I appreciate people come and go at that time but this happens so regularly for constant periods of time it makes living our own lives difficult."

One resident described his partner as being terrified by the disturbances while another said it was affecting his mental health.

David Dadds, counsel for the club and pub's leaseholders did not oppose a raft of other conditions, which include: no more than 10 smokers allowed to congregate outside its doors and a smoking marshall to supervise the crowd; a lobby door to be installed within four weeks to cut noise emanating from the club; police-approved CCTV to be installed and maintained; a noise limiter to be installed stopping volume going higher than a set level; anyone causing a disturbance to be banned for 24 hours; automatic switching off of music and disco lights at closing time; a minimum of two registered door staff and at least one to be on duty for 30 minutes before and after club opening hours; no externally advertised promotional nights with police to be warned in advance and no entry after 1am.

But he said the reduction in hours was excessive as it would harm the club owner's livelihood. He pointed out the club had already complied with a number of conditions, such as the CCTV, and that the promoter of the nights causing trouble had already been dropped after a meeting with police in July. The shooting on September 4 was the last in the series of the promoted nights.

Of the incidents recorded by police, Mr Dadds said the only serious crime was the shooting which could have happened anywhere. He said most of the 11 other crimes, including a stabbing, assault, robbery, theft and public order offences, happened in the pub, rather than the club, and that police were unconcerned about events before 11pm as they were not seeking to cut the hours of the Black George.

But the police said the incidents in the Black George show it is being badly run by the management who are also responsible for CJ's. Both are run under the same licence but have different opening hours and conditions.

The club, currently closed for refurbishment and an image change, also had its licence suspended for a week.

The hours of the Black George, which run until midnight Sunday to Thursday and 1am on Fridays to Saturdays, plus half an hour for finishing drinks, remain unchanged.