Kingstons biggest night club escaped the wrath of the councils licensing committee last week.

The club, in St James Road, was threatened with closure six months ago, because of attacks in and around the club.

Since then, new staff have been employed, new CCTV has been installed and new methods for dealing with troublemakers have been introduced. The number of incidents has halved.

Councillor Keith Witham said: The Works is a major entertainment venue and it has up to 2,250 people in it at one time, which is way beyond the clubs in Kingston.

But councillors were convinced the club was doing its best and granted a 12-month licence and extension of opening hours on Sunday nights.

There were still 37 cases of common assault, actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm and GBH with intent in the last six months.

But licensing officer Ray Barnes said: Although police still have concerns about the level of assaults taking place with the use of bottles and knives, the situation has improved.

Between October 2000 and April 2001 there were 14 attacks with bottles. That dropped to six from April until October of this year.