BRISTOL nightclub Lakota is attempting to make a fresh start following the tragic death of a teenager who took drugs at the club.

The 20-year-old Stokes Croft venue will reopen its doors tomorrow night with new management and promises to crack down on drug use.

Lakota was temporarily closed down after 16-year-old Joe Simons died after taking ecstasy at the club last May, but the Evening Post can reveal that there was a second incident where a teenager collapsed in the club after taking the drug in September – although she recovered.

The club was closed down for three months after the second incident, and has taken the time to overhaul its staff, make changes to the club's layout to get rid of "dark corners" which might facilitate drugs deals and meet the new conditions of its licence.

At a council hearing into the future of the club, police said they had received intelligence that door staff were involved in selling drugs themselves and said the amount of resources taken up at the club was similar to those at city centre club Panache, which was shut down last year.

But owner Marti Burgess insists that the club has now made significant structural changes and is looking to get "back on track" and be known once more for being a first class music venue rather than a drugs hotspot.

Ms Burgess has been involved with the club since her family bought it in 1994 but has not been closely involved in recent years. She told the council's licensing hearing that she had now given up her day job to take full ownership of the Upper York Street venue.

"We are really sorry about what happened with Joe Simons," she said. "We regret that after our own investigation it appeared that our staff did not follow the correct procedures on the night that he died.

"We are now reopening and I am taking a more hands-on role at the club. Hopefully it will once again be known for what it really is – a successful venue that does underground music."

After Joe Simons' death the club was immediately closed down before having its licence suspended for two weeks after a council hearing.

Although the club reopened in July for the St Paul's Carnival, they voluntarily closed again to retrain staff. They opened up again in September, but within a couple of weeks of being open a girl collapsed at the club after taking an overdose of MDMA – a form of ecstasy. She was taken to hospital and has since recovered.

The girl, who is believed to have been 19, had gone into the club with friends and had taken the drugs in the club – after not being thoroughly searched when she went in.

The police were already at the club dealing with an assault when they noticed the girl, who seemed unwell.

Police witness statements detail that when the girl had become drowsy, a door steward had asked her to leave, before picking her up and asking her boyfriend to "look after her".

The club was closed down immediately, and after a review hearing with the council in October their licence was again suspended, this time for three months. The police wanted the club shut down for good, but Ms Burgess managed to persuade the council to give Lakota another chance.

The "designated premises supervisor", Ms Burgess' mother Beverley, was removed because she is not in the UK full-time, and the conditions of their licence were modified.

Ms Burgess told the Evening Post that she felt the security staff had not dealt with the girl's collapse in the correct way and had "become complacent". She has now taken steps to replace the club's security staff.

"There have been lots of structural changes since I have been back involved, and since the death of Joe Simons," she said. "We got rid of all our staff, although a few reapplied for their jobs.

"We have new security, various new managers including a new events manager and a new promotions manager, an entirely new team. We are positive about taking the club forward from here.

"We are going back to basics – back to what Lakota is all about, good music. We have a lot of conditions set out in our licence which we are going to comply with, and are aware that the police will be keeping a close eye on us."

She said the club would be using more CCTV, more thorough searches on the door, would have a drug amnesty box, and on high risk nights there would be privately-hired paramedics and passive drugs dogs.

"We cannot be complacent about drugs," she said. "We have to do what we have always done and be really hard against it – we have no tolerance of drugs in the club."