A karaoke bar that was found to be operating without permission is to be allowed to stay open, despite concerns from police.

An application for a licence for the former Vanity Korean BBQ restaurant on Prince of Wales Road has been given the go-ahead by City Hall.

The premises first opened as a karaoke bar in November, initially without any permission to do so.

After being alerted to this by police, the owners secured a series of short-term licenses - temporary event notices (TENS) - which can only be used a limited number of times each year.

But permanent permission has now been secured, despite Norfolk Constabulary raising concerns about a recent incident at the bar.

Ian Stutely, the chair of Norwich City Council's licensing committee, said officers had provided CCTV of an “intoxicated vulnerable female” who was “clearly unwell for a while”.

He asked what the bar owner would do in the future to prevent that from happening again.

Miranda, a worker at the restaurant who was representing her manager, Xinghuang Chen, said: "We completely understand that we need to prevent this from happening again.”

She said they had updated staff training, will be hiring a door supervisor and would be complying with police requests, including for CCTV in the private karaoke booths and physical checks every 30 minutes.

She said the owner had not known he was operating without a licence for about a week last November, only becoming aware when police visited.

“Mr Chen clarified to the police that he was not aware he needed a premises licence to operate and guaranteed that we would apply immediately, submitting it that night,” she said. 

Miranda described the venue as a small bar, where people can “sing, dance and drink”.  

Customers have to book in advance and the opening hours will be from midday to 3am.