Pub Licensing

[Lee J]

Here's a question some of you might know the answer to...

My village has a pub. The landlord bought the pub about 5 years ago and tried to change it into a house. This was refused and he was told he couldn't change the business into residential and it was serving the community. So he shut the doors and he just lives there. Thats it, he never opens to serve beer or food now, he's just living in the building. My question is...

Is there a minimum opening time for him to be able to keep his license? Surely if he opens zero hours a week he should have his license revoked?

 

[joethedrummer]

Here's a question some of you might know the answer to...

My village has a pub. The landlord bought the pub about 5 years ago and tried to change it into a house. This was refused and he was told he couldn't change the business into residential and it was serving the community. So he shut the doors and he just lives there. Thats it, he never opens to serve beer or food now, he's just living in the building. My question is...

Is there a minimum opening time for him to be able to keep his license? Surely if he opens zero hours a week he should have his license revoked?

just been told that the licence doesn"t mean he has to do what the licence is for,,but on the upside , it won"t happen at our local !!
he sounds like an a,,,,ole,, drink elsewhere,,

 

[marcros]

he sounds like an a,,,,ole,, drink elsewhere,,

He has no option, bl00dy place is never open!

 

[joethedrummer]

We worked in Leeds,, there was loads of pubs,,, hope your landlord goes bust,, it will serve him right!!

 

[whiskywill]

We worked in Leeds,, there was loads of pubs,,, hope your landlord goes bust,, it will serve him right!!

If he doesn't open up as a pub he is not in business so how can he go bust? :?

 

[AndyT]

Lee, do you live just outside Bath? There has been a similar story bubbling along there for a while, but it looks like the villagers may be winning. Lots more here http://southstoke.net/

 

[Lee J]

I live 40 mile out of leeds, over Selby way, middle of the countryside. We have another pub in the next village but it's a trek over there.

Our village now has no community centre. The pub was the centre of everything.

 

[joethedrummer]

I live 40 mile out of leeds, over Selby way, middle of the countryside. We have another pub in the next village but it's a trek over there.

Our village now has no community centre. The pub was the centre of everything.

Real sorry to hear that, where we live more problems are solved over a drink or three at our local than the police, politicians or parsons could solve in a lifetime,,

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"The pub was the centre of everything" - I suppose the landlord was making so much he couldn't handle it, and had close?
I reminds me of hearing people moan about local pubs closing - It's such a shame, we used to have a lovely Christmas lunch time down there!

I go into my local at Christmas and hear it - Landlord, three pints of Dogvomit Five X please! Sorry, I don't keep it. You kept it last Christmas! No, I didn't. Must have been the year before - anyway, why don't you keep it? Because no one asks for it. Well, I've asked for it. Yes, but you come in once in two years. In the meantime keg a week people can't get served. Then they moan like hell when the place shuts down.

An ex landlord.

 

[thomvic]

Is there a minimum opening time for him to be able to keep his license? Surely if he opens zero hours a week he should have his license revoked?

He will lose his personal licence to sell and serve alcohol if he fails to re-new it at the appropriate time - usually annually. The building will remain "licenced premises" until the local planning authority agrees to de-licence it. In the meantime the premises will still be subject to business rates I believe.

Richard

 

[thomvic]

The pub was the centre of everything.

Everything except spending enough money there to justify it being kept open I presume.

The old adage applies - "If you don't use it - you lose it!" Same applies to every other "amenity" business.

Richard

 

[joethedrummer]

"The pub was the centre of everything" - I suppose the landlord was making so much he couldn't handle it, and had close?
I reminds me of hearing people moan about local pubs closing - It's such a shame, we used to have a lovely Christmas lunch time down there!

I go into my local at Christmas and hear it - Landlord, three pints of Dogvomit Five X please! Sorry, I don't keep it. You kept it last Christmas! No, I didn't. Must have been the year before - anyway, why don't you keep it? Because no one asks for it. Well, I've asked for it. Yes, but you come in once in two years. In the meantime keg a week people can't get served. Then they moan like hell when the place shuts down.

An ex landlord.

Seems there is a chance for us both at Lee"s local ,You as the Master of the house an" me as the prime customer,

 

[morfa]

Going further off topic...

Honestly, most pubs in the UK deserve to close down. Dingy, grim, unwelcoming places which couldn't pull a decent pint if their lives depended on it. I really like decent beer and I really like going to a pub. I just find lots of pubs fairly awful places to go to.

There's a pub near me which re-opened as a proper free house a couple of years back. They've done the place up, nothing amazing, but it's clean and tidy. They have a couple of regular kegs, but otherwise they always have different beers from all over the country on. They also have an off-licence, so you can take a bottle home. It's always busy. Even on a quiet day, you'll generally get about 10 folks in there and at the weekends it's generally pretty full.

Recently won a comp in the local paper:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... 13-4008538

 

[AndyT]

Lee, do have a read of the site I linked to. The villagers there found that, under the 2011 Localism Act, the pub could be designated as an Asset of community Value which meant it could not be changed from a pub to a residence. They are now looking to take it over and run it.

 

[Lee J]

ok, a bit more info required here as I seem to be getting the blame for it closing.

The pub has been for a long long time a place where the locals had many many great nights. We've supported it through everything. Not just xmas either, they used to put on many events in the large function room. they even had it listed as a wedding venue.
Then, one day completely out of the blue the landlord announced it would be closing until he sells it (it'd been in his family since about 1950). So it shut.
6 months later we had the new landlord come along and he bought it and normal service was resumed. Then he announced he had tried to get the use of it changed from a pub to a private house. He had never been a landlord before, he owned a transport haulage company. then after a few months of not giving a dung he sacked the award winning chef, stopped taking in campers, closed the function room, stopped stocking the bar. The locals by now had had enough and people started to go elsewhere. Then he just closed the doors for good.

Some of us who knew him a little better confronted him one night and asked of his intentions. He said he had never intended running a pub, he wanted the building for a house and now he's stuck in the middle.

there, turns out it was nothing to do with lack of support at all.

 

[Lee J]

this pub/hotel monday to saturday would have 10 rooms filled with guests. We're close to the powerstations so contractors would stop here. that £50 a night for each of the 10 rooms. Then the pub itself by 9pm would have around 50 people (locals) all drinking, a lot of them farmers and their wives, policemen, a whole range of people.

Some friday nights it was rammed in there, even when the new landlord took it over.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Lee, sorry - my dig wasn't aimed at you in particular. Many off the problems are caused by excessive rents by pub companies, and I thoroughly agree with another post that made the point that a lot of pubs are so grim they don't deserve your money.

 

[Lee J]

I'm not sure he has rent to pay as he bought the whole thing outright. I think it was around £250,000 which is a good price for a house that looks like this ...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, the market's turned around. In the 70s and 80s the breweries would sell off pubs without licenses as they were worth less (and they were then no competition) - people tried to get them with licenses, to re-open them as freehouses. Now they are worth a lot more without licenses, for conversion to houses.

 

[thomvic]

Some of us who knew him a little better confronted him one night and asked of his intentions. He said he had never intended running a pub, he wanted the building for a house and now he's stuck in the middle. there, turns out it was nothing to do with lack of support at all.

And that is exactly why local authorities are reluctant to allow de-licencing. The guy obviously though buying the premises was a cheap way of acquiring a decent sized house in a location he wanted.

Richard